President Bush
French President Nicolas Sarkozy
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Traditionally, there are four questions allowed at bilateral press conferences. Each leader calls on two reporters, typically choosing members of the press from their own country.\
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Mr. Bush answered the first question about Pakistan, and then waited expectantly for Mr. Sarkozy to offer his own thoughts. \
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Mr. Sarkozy, however, just stood there, and so Mr. Bush expected he was going to move on and call on a French reporter.\
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“You want to call on somebody?” Mr. Bush said.\
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“You know, in France, I don’t choose. I don’t pick the journalists,” Mr. Sarkozy said in French, with the translation adding to the awkwardness.\
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“You don’t get to choose? Who chooses? I choose?” Mr. Bush said, laughing. “Who would you like me to choose?”\
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But then, Mr. Sarkozy made a vague gesture towards the reporters.\
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“Oh, he chose. Wait a minute,” Mr. Bush said, still laughing. “Didn’t last very long, did it?”\
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And Mr. Sarkozy argued that he did not, in fact, call on any specific reporter.\
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“I didn’t choose. I indicated a general direction,” Mr. Sarkozy said.\
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When it came time for Mr. Sarkozy to call on a reporter a second time, he again made a vague sweep of his hand towards the reporters, looking annoyed. \
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— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times
