He wants to live forever, have the option to escape to outer space or an oceanic city-state, and play chess against a robot that can discuss Tolkien, because these were the fantasies that filled his childhood imagination.

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Fearful of being trapped in Kansas forever, he is driven by a desire to escape his beginnings and become something he imagines is bigger and better than his father ever was.

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But if you spend enough time talking to ministers, EU commissioners and ambassadors in Brussels, you cannot escape the sense that, in private, Mr Sarkozy is seen as a rather ludicrous and tiresome man, forever announcing grand, impulsive plans, ideally without any warning at press conferences, before leaving his colleagues to pick up the pieces.

ECONOMIST: European politics