Speedy Sarko

Sacre Bleu State! French leftist "intellectuals" wonder. Times Online:

“Is jogging right wing?” wondered Libération, the left-wing newspaper. Alain Finkelkraut, a celebrated philosopher, begged Mr Sarkozy on France 2, the main state television channel, to abandon his “undignified” pursuit. He should take up walking, like Socrates, Arthur Rimbaud, the poet, and other great men, said Mr Finkelkraut.

“Western civilisation, in its best sense, was born with the promenade. Walking is a sensitive, spiritual act. Jogging is management of the body. The jogger says I am in control. It has nothing to do with meditation.” (Were these guys in Iowa with Obama?)

Mr Sarkozy’s habit infuriates his critics – and some supporters – because he flaunts it so hard. Le running du Président, often clad in his favourite NYPD T-shirt, has become a ritual, like King Louis XIV’s rides at Versailles.

Only the French could compare a politician running in an American T-shirt to the Sun King. Apparently sweat is suspect on the French Left.

They call him Speedy Sarko...or SuperSarko, but some think it's all very sinister:

Patrick Mignon, a sports sociologist,(a sports sociologist?!) noted that French intellectuals had always held sport in contempt, while totalitarian regimes cultivated physical fitness.

But actually, how can Sarko really be a threat---he's overweight according to at least one other keen observer. Maybe these hyperventilating intellectuals would be more comfortable if he adopted the Michael Dukakis style of jogging, a real man of the left---those wingtips he wore were so sensitive. I have to admit, a flash of Bill Clinton's pasty-white thighs were a force majeure, but then he was a New Democrat, slightly to the Right of the Left. So Libération may be Right after all. (What good is libération---a guy can't even jog?)