The French opinion is the world's opinion

One of the things I haven't quite gotten my head around is why the American Right has remained so fixated on the alleged perfidy of the French regarding Iraq. The French have merely enunciated views that are almost universally shared around the globe. One thing that people like to forget about the Security Council vote that never was is that the French didn't even need to threaten to use their veto: the fact is, Bush and Powell were unable to convince even a bare majority of the members to authorize the war.

But the American Right continues for some reason to single out the French for special opprobrium. Perhaps it's just traditional Francophobia. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that French actually made a (very weak) attempt to turn their opinions into policy. Or perhaps it's because the Right hopes to create the impression that the French were and are unique in their opposition to the Bush regime's Iraq policy. It's hard to know for sure, but the Right's continuous harping on those bad Frenchies has begun to seem like something between a comedy routine and a slightly pathetic mental insecurity.

Remember the old ditty about "Fifty million Frenchmen can't be wrong"?

They say the French are naughty
They say the French are bad
They all declare that over there
The French are going mad.

Well, this map provides an interesting Red-Blue view concerning World opinion regarding Bush's reelection.

Most people would probably concede that when 99% of people share an opinion concerning someone's character, it's probably a pretty accurate judgment.

Then again, maybe denizens of other countries don't fully qualify as "people."