Jacques Carter

As Captain Ed points out this morning, Jacques Chirac has had a Jimmy Carter moment:

President Jacques Chirac, addressing his country for the first time since unrest broke out, said that he had asked Parliament to extend a national state of emergency to February and that he would set up a program that would provide jobs and training for 50,000 youths by 2007.

The president, stressing respect for the law and the need to recognize the diversity of French society, acknowledged that the past two weeks had been proof of a "profound malaise" in the country, calling it a "crisis of identity."

Chirac has decided to follow the lead of two failed leaders at once - Jimmy Carter, senile ex-US president, and Dominique de Villepin (who is reportedly a man-HC), Prime Minister of France. Jimmy Carter galvanized the whole U.S. with his famous "malaise" speech (snore), and de Villepin promised to reward bad behavior by throwing money at the protesters. Two great examples of leadership.

The French are doomed.