Barack Obama, Nicholas Sarkozy meet in Paris
The Democrat and France's conservative president said they discussed international and environmental affairs in a meeting. John McCain keeps his focus stateside campaigning in Colorado.
Democrat Barack Obama brought his presidential campaign to Paris this morning and met with French President Nicholas Sarkozy.
Obama arrived at the presidential Elysee Palace as photographers gathered around the likely Democratic presidential nominee. He shook hands with Sarkozy, a conservative, who had returned to Paris for the meeting from a summit in southwestern France.
After their meeting, Sarkozy and Obama held a televised news conference where they said they had discussed a range of issues including Iran, Afghanistan, the Mideast and global warming.
Obama, whose trip has been criticized by Republicans for being too much like the act of an elected president, told reporters that Iran should accept European proposals and not wait for the next president to be elected president in the United States.
Obama and Sarkozy first met in 2006, a year before Sarkozy was elected president of France. At the news conference they smiled and chatted together.
The reception Obama received contrasted with the low-key one John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, received during a March visit to Paris.
On Thursday, Obama spoke before a crowd of 200,000 in an open-air rally in Berlin. Earlier in his nine-day overseas trip, he met with heads of state and government in the Mideast. Obama's final stop will be Saturday in London.
While Obama has traveled abroad, McCain has concentrated on battleground states in the United States.
Today, the Arizona senator is campaigning in Colorado where he isscheduled to deliver an address on foreign policy and veterans issues at the 2008 American GI Forum of the United States, a largely Latino group.
Colorado has been targeted by both campaigns in the general election. A state poll on Thursday showed McCain with a slim lead in Colorado, though other polls show Obama running ahead with Latinos, a key voting group throughout the West and Southwest.
Later, McCain is scheduled to meet the Dalai Lama in Aspen, Colo., before heading home to Sedona, Ariz., for the weekend.
michael.muskal@latimes.com
