Certainly Mr Sarkozy can point to some useful liberalising reforms on his watch, such as a rise in the minimum retirement age from 60 to 62, or the granting of autonomy to universities.
They point in mitigation to such goodwill gestures as granting free admission to state universities for students from Darfur, and note that it was the rebel parties, not the government, which failed to show up for recent peace talks.
Two weeks ago, House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor delivered an important speech that signaled a willingness to support legal residence and citizenship for children brought here illegally along with a guest-worker program, as part of granting visas to high-skilled immigrants educated at our universities.