It turns out that when you repeatedly go out of your way to alienate someone, you eventually end up alienating them:

Mr Sarkozy is pouring cold water on President Obama's efforts to recast American leadership on the world stage, depicting them as unoriginal, unsubstantial and overrated. ...The American President's call "to free the world of the menace of a nuclear nightmare" was hot air... Most of Mr Obama's proposals had already been made by the Bush administration... "The President is annoyed by what he sees as the naivety and the herd mentality of the media,"... according to the Sarkozy version, at the Nato summit in Strasbourg, Mr Obama was meekly yielding to Turkey's refusal to endorse Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance's new Secretary-General. It took pressure from Mr Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel of Germany to stiffen him up and change his mind, say the French.

Sarkozy slapped down the US President on French TV after he publicly called for Turkish entry to the European Union... it is easy to detect disappointment over Mr Obama's failure to respond to the Sarkozy charm offensive.

Given what happened at the NATO summit, maybe there's something to the idea that the Turkey EU endorsement - which sent Sarkozy and Merkel ballistic - was done in a fit of pique. Though that probably undersells the boneheaded reflexive multilateralism that went into the decision.

Oh well. At least we've won over the Sudanese:

The Janjaweed militia which President Al-Bashir has recruited and armed is responsible for the deaths of 400,000 Africans from the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. Over 2,500,000 Africans have been displaced in the process. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan praised Barack Obama on Monday. Reuters reported, via ROP: Sudan's leader welcomed on Monday "positive signs" sent by U.S. President Barack Obama to the Islamic world, striking a more conciliatory tone towards Washington, seen as an enemy of Khartoum in the past.

And to think, I just got done doing a post about how Obama's groveling multilateralism hasn't gained him any new friends.

References and previously after the jump...