Even I, a hardened veteran of the media wars, am dumbfounded at the purple prose and excruciatingly obvious sycophancy of this AP article about Obama’s visit to France:
France gets its Obama moment

People gawked and cameras clicked as the Obamas cut a wide figure through the French capital even while confined to a presidential motorcade. It was more personal for the few kept not so distant — the restaurant owner who “saw God,” the chauffeur reveling in a “magnificent mission.”

President Barack Obama, wife Michelle and their two daughters touched lives in simple ways during a private stay in the French capital that closed out a six-day presidential tour rich in history, symbolism and giant messages to the world.

Even a Sunday visit to the gilded Elysee presidential palace was casual and intimate.

The luncheon hosted by President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, Carla, for Michelle and the two Obama daughters looked like an advance fete for Sasha’s 8th birthday this Wednesday. The Obama trio, lingering a bit in the City of Light after the president’s departure, then went shopping at the high-end Left Bank store for children, “Bonpoint.”

Media scrutiny of the family was intense. The French are confirmed fans of the Obamas, whose politics and elegant style conform to their ideal vision of the United States. The couple makes frequent appearances on the covers of French magazines. Michelle Obama, whose wardrobe choices are analyzed, gets an A-plus for sartorial glamor, natural poise and sheer intelligence.

But the common touch the first American couple represents, so antithetical to the traditional pomp and circumstance of French heads of state, sets them apart.

This would do justice to a North Korean account of one of the Dear Leader’s outings.