Tony Blair, Future President of Europe

Link: Blair kicks off campaign to become EU President | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics.

"Tony Blair launched his campaign to become the first fully-fledged President of the European Union yesterday by describing the notion of left- and right-wing politics as redundant. (((Boy, there's nobody quite so ardent as a Catholic convert.)))

"With France preparing to oversee the appointment process, Blair set out his vision of modern European democracy at a meeting of the French governing conservative party by also claiming that EU countries could achieve far more by working together than acting in isolation.

'Europe is not a question of left or right, but a question of the future or the past, of strength or weakness,' said the former British Prime Minister, speaking in French...."

"In his most important speech since leaving Downing Street last June, addressing 2,000 supporters of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Blair said globalisation was eradicating traditional party lines and class distinctions and rendering old political remedies obsolete. 'It's about today versus yesterday. Less about politics and more about a state of mind; open as opposed to closed,' he said.

(((Tony Blair, Europe's first post-ideological open-source President.)))

"Blair, a close ally of Sarkozy who advised the French politician during his rise to power, is strongly backed by the French President to become President of the EU Council of Ministers in January next year...

"Sarkozy, 52, who appeared at the Palais des Sports rally without his 40-year-old girlfriend, Carla Bruni..."

(((I *almost* managed to get through the day without any mention of Carla Bruni. Man, that was a struggle.)))