"If Bush Remains … This Will Immediately Impact Our Internal Politics"

Jennifer Joan Lee in the International Herald Tribune:

"He has the ability to provoke incredible animosity," said Alain Frachon, a senior editor at Le Monde, one of several French newspapers running extensive coverage of the American campaign. "And this gives us even more incentive to be interested in the U.S. election, because Bush is probably the least liked of all U.S. presidents since World War II."

… "If Bush remains, American troops may stay longer in Iraq and this will immediately impact our internal politics," said Jean-Gabriel Fredet, an editor at Le Nouvel Observateur, a French weekly that recently carried on its cover, "Why We Must Beat Bush." …

Some European pundits, meanwhile, even as they condemn Bush, predict that his re-election would be good for Europe, casting the region's intense dislike of him as the one unifying factor that could bring harmony back to the European Union after the friction around the Iraq war. Many others believe a Kerry victory could help repair trans-Atlantic relations. That is the hope of some in Spain, whose new government's decision to withdraw troops from Iraq created tensions with Washington.