That "special" TV moment between IMF head Christine Lagarde and CNBC journalist Maria Bartiromo

Recently Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund,  appeared, as she has done regularly, on the US-based satellite and cable television business news channel CNBC.

Facing her was the channel's Maria Bartiromo, a journalist with a proven track record, author of several books and recipient of various awards.

Christine Lagarde and Maria Bartiromo (screenshot montage from CNBC video)

The main thrust of what Lagarde had to say was that "austerity upon austerity doesn't work," with Bartiromo pushing to find out whether Greece would be offered a better deal.

So the scene is set for an interview between two very capable women with Bartiromo quizzing Lagarde on the world global economy (of all things) just ahead of the the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group in Tokyo.

But remember this was television - a medium in which some journalists, even the most experienced and accomplished can fall into the trap of considering themselves to be at least equal if not sometimes better than the person they're interviewing - or at least giving the appearance of what they have to say and their take on an issue, matters.

You know the sort of thing: a journalist specialising in a certain field becomes the expert qualified to share with viewers, listeners or readers, their point of view.

"Hello subjectivity" and "Goodbye objectivity".

Although there are several examples earlier on in the interview of Bartiromo chipping in with her comments on what Lagarde is saying, take a listen to the exchange that takes place between the two when France is mentioned (fast forward to eight minutes and 57 seconds in the accompanying video - you can watch it here).

Lagarde of course is French and before taking over from Dominique Strauss-Kahn (yes the job has become something of a Gallic domain in recent years) she was this country's finance minister.

Bartiromo wanted to find out (really?) Lagarde's thoughts on the 75 per cent tax rate the French government is planning to impose on those earning more than €1 million annually, asking whether she found it "appropriate".

Ever the international diplomat that she has become, Lagarde was not to be drawn saying she was going to take questions on France for obvious reasons.

"Because it's your country?" asked Bartiromo.

"Correct," replied Lagarde.

But that wasn't enough for the journalist who wanted an answer to the question she had "posed", even if now forced, in part, to give it herself.

"It does seem a little aggressive from a policy standpoint," began Bartiromo.

"Do you think we could see that kind of tax rates in other countries? I mean, this is a real debate. I understand you don't want to criticise or comment on something going on in France. But you have to be thinking about this," she finished, allowing Lagarde a little more room for manœuvre without having to appear to comment openly on internal French politics.

A clever rephrasing of the question from Bartiromo to try to tease out an opinion or a point of view that might otherwise be buried under a blanket of diplomatic doublespeak?

Or a clumsy technique of appearing to the devil's advocate but perhaps letting slip her own thoughts on the subject?

You decide.

Either way, for such a normally dry subject, it's a delicious TV moment as both women retain their poise during what could have been an instant of dead air silence.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn: "Perhaps I was politically naive" - he's kidding right?

There might well be something to the claims made by former International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn that political opponents' handling of the events after his infamous sexual encounter with a maid in a New York hotel in May 2011 amounted to an "orchestration".

 DSK arrest in New York (screenshot BFM TV)

After all, it's not the first time such allegations have been made.

But one sentence in a piece by Edward Jay Epstein in Friday's edition of the UK daily national The Guardian surely makes a complete mockery of any arguments there might be to back up that theory and any support he might still have.

"Perhaps I was politically naive but I simply did not believe that they would go that far … I didn't think they could find anything that could stop me," he says.

Politically naive?

Strauss-Kahn might be many things, but surely "politically naive" isn't one of them.

From a man who had a long career in French politics and served as both a member of the National Assembly and two years as finance minister, ran (unsuccessfully) for the 2007 Socialist party presidential nomination and was later appointed head of the IMF after being nominated by Nicolas Sarkozy.

He's having us on right?

When will the media stop running profiles and interviews with a man who was a total disgrace and embarrassment to France and its  political system?

Vanity Fair's best-dressed woman - Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

So that arbiter of taste and supplier of news on pop culture, fashion and current affairs, the monthly magazine Vanity Fair, has released its 72nd annual best dressed list.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (screenshot from trailer for Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris")

And as far as the women are concerned the winner is...the former top model-cum singer/actress and France's current first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

Yes she of the finely chiselled features, raspy voice and elegantly increasing girth in expectation of a happy event has managed to beat out stiff competition from Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned (the second of the three wives of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar) and the recently-wed Duchess of Cambridge, aka to many still as Kate Middleton.

Perhaps not surprisingly the French media was fawningly quick off the mark to revel in the news.

"French chic - you've heard of it?" trumpeted the weekly glossy Voici.

"Well just to make matters easy, it can be defined in three words, 'Carla Bruni-Sarkozy'," it continued (un)imaginatively.

For fellow celebrity gossip magazine Gala it came as little surprise that Bruni-Sarkozy had made it as Vanity Fair's best dressed women as she had been among the "sartorially superior" for the past four years.

And let's face it, she's not exactly a stranger to the world of high fashion and GLAMOUR.

"She's known for having that refined distinction inherited from being from the upper middle class," it wrote.

"And she has been the flawless hostess at the l’Elysée (palace) with assured taste and a figure allowing her to show off to perfection clothes from some of the greatest fashion designers."

The magazine also delighted in the timing, remarking that while the "Mother-to-be might recently have given up on her Dior dresses and Louboutin shoes, she had also managed to dazzle through her natural beauty at the G8 summit in June where she appeared in her her simple Rogier Verdier-designed wardrobe."

And so it continued with the emphasis being put on Bruni-Sarkozy's "simplicity and elegance" (TF1) or "Vanity Fair having succumbed to Bruni-Sarkozy's charm" (Le Parisien)


But as much of the French media was equally at pains to point out, Bruni-Sarkozy was not the only woman on the list to "embody French style".

Because there at number six was the recently-appointed head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde.

You can see the full list - of best-dressed women and men - as well as what Paris Match calls "Vanity Fair's 'ovation' to a certain Kate Middleton'," over on the magazine's site and check out the comments.

They just about say it all.

DSK and the "Yes we Kahn" tee shirt - a hint for 2012?

Will Dominique Strauss-Kahn throw his hat into the ring for the Socialist party primary to become its official candidate in France's 2012 presidential election?

He says he has made his decision but is keeping it to himself for the moment - just as he has done during months of relentless media speculation both at home and abroad.

(screenshot from Canal + documentary)

At the weekend Canal +, France's premium pay television channel aired a documentary dedicated entirely to DSK as he's more popularly known.

"Un an avec DSK - au coeur du FMI" wasn't just a straightforward interview but, as its name suggests an almost hour-long portrait of the man following him around in his role as head of the International Monetary Fund.

It wasn't encrypted as most of the channel's programmes are, so anyone who wanted to could watch.

It was an intriguing documentary which illustrated just how much interest there is from journalists around the world about DSK's intentions for 2012, while at the same time underlining his inability to be able to give any sort of straight answer as it would contravene IMF regulations forbidding political comment.

DSK also came across as a man busy cultivating an image that certainly doesn't do his stature as a heavyweight on the international political scene any harm whatsoever.

There were also a couple of moments that were surely quite telling about DSK's continual cat-and-mouse game with the media as the inevitable questions about his intentions for 2012 were asked - time and time again.

The first came in July 2010 during a summit in South Korea when the boss of one of the country's largest newspapers quite simply asked him, "So you're going to run to be president?"

"Yes," came the immediate response and a pause for effect.

"I'm going to run...to see your president (Lee Myung-bak) tomorrow morning - I hope."

And the second tease came in September 2010 when DSK and his wife Anne Sinclair, attended the IMF's annual football tournament in the suburbs of Washington.

They, and others, were wearing tee shirts with his image and the slogan "Yes we Kahn" printed on the back.

When the journalist pointed out the obvious similarity to the one used by Barack Obama in 2008 and suggested that it could be construed like a declaration of sorts, DSK laughed it off.

"The tee shirts had been made without my knowledge and are in support of the team representing my office, he said.

And when asked by the journalist what he thought of the (tee shirt's) slogan DSK replied, "It has been used once. It can't be used again."

Whatever your thoughts on the chances of any Socialist candidate winning in 2012, DSK, has until mid July to announce whether he's going to run in the party's primary.

That's when nominations close.

In the meantime, as the weekly news magazine L'Express writes, DSK appears to be the master at playing the political game to its full.

"He says just enough to remain within the constraints placed upon him by the IMF while at the same time not too little that the French would forget him."

DSK with "the wind in his sails"

This Thursday's issue of the weekly French news magazine, Le Point, should make interesting reading for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, or DSK as he's most commonly known here, the head of the International Monetary Fund.

Because even though his job means he's currently based in Washington away from the cut and thrust of the domestic political scene, and his tenure there doesn't officially end until 2012, DSK has now become this country's most popular politician.

In the latest poll - yes you might remember how keen the French are on them - conducted by Ispsos on behalf of the magazine, DSK ranks first "dethroning" the former favourite the junior sports ministers Rama Yade who drops to third, and ahead of the ever-popular foreign minister Bernard Kouchner who takes second spot.

It was perhaps only a matter of time that Yade, who has held the top spot for the past five months, should slip in the ratings, after all she hasn't really been making the headlines recently for reasons controversial or otherwise.

But DSK's rise which led Le Point to describe him as having the "wind in his sails" surely keeps alive both interest about a potential presidential run in the 2012 elections, and speculation that he will at least throw his hat into the ring to be the Socialist party's candidate in the race for office.

Remember DSK's every appearance in France, be it in his official capacity or on a private visit, is closely followed - by the media at least.

Even though he made every effort to avoid the subject for example in a televised appearance on the evening news magazine "Le Grand Journal" on Canal + back in November, it just wouldn't go away.

And the latest figures will undoubtedly keep his (and probably many other people's) hopes well and truly alive.

What they indicate, apart from the fact that it's the first time DSK tops the rankings, is that he's popular across the political spectrum. Among those from his own Socialist party he has an approval rating of 63 per cent - no surprise there perhaps.

But should he decide to take a look at what supporters of the ruling centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP), think of him, he'll undoubtedly be pleasantly surprised as among them he has a 68 per cent approval rating.

All right so "agreed" opinion polls are of course never to be fully believed and can be interpreted in any way you might wish. And they don't in any way give the full picture.

But this latest one will surely keep the story of "DSK and the 2012 presidential election" well and truly alive - at least among pollsters and the media.

Just for the record, the current incumbent of the job in which DSK refuses to express a personal or professional interest (ahem), Nicolas Sarkozy, fares just as he did last month with a 38 per cent approval rating - an occupational hazard of High Office perhaps.

To be continued...

DSK for French president 2012 - the saga continues

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn (or DSK as he's more commonly known here), has been in Paris this week.

And the burning subject on the lips of everyone (oh all right then, journalists) was whether he wanted to be the Socialist party's candidate for the 2012 French presidential elections.

Not without reason perhaps the media was - and remains - enthralled by the prospect, and of course the subject came up in both television and newspaper interviews he gave while in the French capital.

He might be head of one of the most important organisations overseeing the global financial system, but the fact of the matter is that DSK's trips to Paris are significant on the domestic political front because he's considered by many as a potentially major political opponent to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, should he become the Socialist party's candidate for office in the 2012 elections.

The polls say so, and it's not something new.

Nor is it something that has escaped the attention of Sarkozy, who back in July 2007 quickly secured the agreement of other European Union leaders to nominate DSK as the head of the IMF when the job became available.

Every time DSK puts in an appearance here - be it in his official capacity, or on a private visit - the saga of the "return of Dominique Strauss-Kahn for 2012" is re-ignited.

And such was the case this past week when he faced the inevitable questions on his popularity among the French electorate and what the consequences might be.

Appearing on the mid-evening television news magazine "Le Grand Journal" on Canal + on Wednesday, DSK avoided all the questions about any presidential ambitions, and especially the possibility of resigning from his current job before reaching the end of his tenure, with panache.

"You have people who spend their lives living in the past or the future," he said.

"I live in the present," he added.

"Of course it's always pleasant when people like you, but there have been times when I've been less popular," he said.

"Maybe the fact that I'm far away (in Washington) contributes to my popularity."

If DSK remains for the moment somewhat loathe to discuss a possible presidential run, then others are certainly less hesitant about preparing the path for him.

They include a former prime minister, Laurent Fabius, who said in a television interview that Strauss-Kahn was one of the few Socialist figures who could "shoulder the responsibility of being president" and the leader of the party, Martine Aubry.

"If he proves to be the party's best candidate then he must return," she said during a political talk show on France 2 television.

"But it's still too early to say who is the (party's) candidate capable of winning the presidency," she went on to say, adding that she and Strauss-Kahn shared the same opinion.

Undoubtedly DSK and the 2012 presidential election is a story "to be continued".