Vive la différence?

The first real political argument between Obama and Hillary -- the first to really catch fire -- is the tussle over who's less elitist than the other. Barack goes bowling. Hillary hoists a beer. Barack brags that his mother used food stamps. Hillary says she's been out shooting in the forest since she was a tiny hunter. She calls him an elitist. He wonders if Hillary might not be a bit racist.

Tomorrow we'll read that that Bud Lite is sponsoring the two candidates in a belching contest on ESPN.

Meanwhile, in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy is quickly losing popularity because of his image as being crude, uncultured, enamored with curvaceous pop celebs, and in general a tasteless boor. "President Bling-Bling," they call him. The taunt "Sarko l'Américain" is even more devastating. What insult could be more degrading to a civilized European than "he acts like an American"?

French politics is different from ours. The French public doesn't want political leaders who act just like themselves. The voters assume that anyone worthy of high political office should set a cultural example to the entire French nation -- not just exercise political leadership. As noted by Michael Kimmelman in today's New York Times, President François Mitterand loved to read Dostoevsky while in office. Georges Pompidou published an anthology of French poetry. Jacques Chirac let it be known that he had translated Pushkin from the Russian during his years as a teenager. Each of these French presidents oversaw the building of amazing landmarks --museums, libraries, opera houses -- that last on as architectural and cultural monuments to their years in office.

Nations differ, of course. We aren't France, and we needn't act like the French. On the other hand, we're not doomed to act like Kazakhstanis, either. Take President Kennedy, for example. Admittedly, JFK had his moments of moral and esthetic grubbiness. But the public image that he and his wife projected while in office was that of an attractive young couple of impressive educational and cultural attainments. Never before had the United States seen a president whose inauguration was celebrated with readings by a poet of Robert Frost's stature, with music played by a cellist of Pablo Casals's fame and accomplishment.

No one called Kennedy an elitist. Even as Americans drank their nightly beer as they watched him on TV, they were proud to have such a president. Maybe they themselves would never attend an opera, but -- they may have hoped -- someday their children might. Americans -- even those who disagreed with his political leadership -- felt like a more civilized people because Kennedy was their president.

Certainly, Kennedy never felt he had to bowl a gutter ball or brag about his love of guns, either during his campaigns or while in the White House. And American voters never asked him to.

President Sarkozy's political and economic policies are reasonably popular in France. President Sarkozy, as a person, is not. His personal ratings in the polls are low, and his political advisers are worried. "President Bling-Bling." "Sarko l'Américain." Meanwhile, back here at home, political pundits worry that Obama seems too thoughtful, too cosmopolitan, too intelligent. He doesn't have the so-called common touch. They discuss whether he's ruined his political hopes by suggesting that workers in economically depressed states are bitter and may focus more strongly on issues like gun control and social issues because their hopes for economic progress are so dim. As one commentator remarks, Hillary condescends to her base more skillfully. After Hillary and Bill finish paying taxes on their 2007 combined income of $20.4 million, and after she responds to Obama's "gaffe" by calling him an "elitist," she yuks it up in a tavern, a schooner of brewski in hand. "Hey fellas, who's got the guts to arm wrestle me?" I can almost picture her bellowing.

The voters eat it up, apparently.

Different nations, different values. Vive la différence!

Or maybe not.