While stopping in Paris today, Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy not only met at the Elysees Palace, they met the gathered French and American media together. The Illinois Senator, more popular in Europe than any American since Elvis, and the Frenchman more popular in the U.S. than any of his countrymen since de Gaulle, lavished praise on each other a day after Sarkozy had referred to Obama as "my pal" in an interview with Le Figaro.

How out of the norm is this? Imagine if President Bush had met the press beside Sarkozy while, as Interior Minister, he ran for president against Socialist candidate Segolene Royal, whom he beat by a narrow 53%-47% margin. Or if President Bush had campaigned against Gordon Brown and openly advocated David Cameron's election?

John McCain met with Sarkozy, with Brown, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and with leaders in Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan. But he didn't hold a joint press conference with a head of state, unlike the junior senator from Illinois. Hubris? Just good politics? You be the judge.