French leftists yearn for Obama to lead them

A spokesperson for the group told ABC News this week, “We started dreaming about this idea two months before the end of Obama’s presidency. We dreamed about this possibility to vote for someone we really admire, someone who could lead us to project ourselves in a bright future. Then, we thought, whether it’s possible or not, whether or not he is French, we have to do this for real, to give French people hope … Vive la République, Vive Obama, Vive la France and the USA.”

Paris has been inundated with campaign posters for “Obama17” appearing all over the city. A website linked to the posters urges visitors to gather a million signatures for their petition so Obama may enter the French race. The slogan is familiar: “Oui on peut,” French for “Yes we can.”

Obama, they believe could bring “hope and change” to France, protesters told ABC News since he is a candidate they “really admire” and “someone who could lead us to project ourselves in a bright future to give French people hope”.

“Barack Obama has completed his second term as President of the United States,” the site says. “Why not hire him as president of France? He has the best resume in the world for the job,” it adds.

He is also a good choice because he is a non-white foreigner : “At a time when France is about to vote massively for the extreme right, we can still give a lesson of democracy to the planet by electing a French President, a foreigner.”

According to the site’s organizers, only 27 000 people have signed the petition so far, possibly because Obama does not speak French. The French president has to be French by law.

Perhaps Obama could provide a birth certificate clearly indicating that he was born the French city Toulouse. The veracity of his birth certificate was contested when he was US president by “birthers”.

But when NPR contacted Obama’s personal office for comment, they got no reply.

A group of four friends came up with the idea “after a drink,” a person involved told NPR. But they want to remain anonymous to avoid damage to their careers however.

“We were thinking about French politics and saying that we were fed up with the fact that we all the time had to vote against someone,” he says, “and how it would be cool to be able to vote for someone we admire. We came up with Obama.”

“The whole world would love to have him as president,” the site-owner said.

“It’s definitely a joke,” says the co-creator of the site. “But it could make people think a little bit about what we could do differently in French politics. … the idea was to make people wake up.”

Another leftist candidate would dilute chances of the already 5 or so leftists in the race and further increase the chances for a patriotic candidate, but the jokers are perhaps not good at math.