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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...whose every move seems to incite opposition or controversy - even among allies. Many of the French President's woes exist because voters are confused about what he stands for. His decisions seem to contradict each other, they complain, and his policies are often ideologically schizophrenic. "For the first two years of his presidency, Sarkozy convinced French public opinion that all he had to do was announce reform for it to be as good as done - that his word and desired results were one and the same," says Denis Muzet, president of Médiascopie, a public-opinion research institute...
Take international affairs. During the first year of his presidency, Sarkozy's frosty relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel led him to downgrade the Franco-German relationship that has traditionally been central to French policy in Europe and instead cultivate closer ties with the U.K. But in April, ahead of the G-20 summit in London, the French leader rushed back to Merkel on the issue of tougher international regulation of financial markets, and has since encouraged a tighter relationship with Berlin. Last week, Sarkozy even started a public fight with British Chancellor Alistair Darling by bragging that the appointment...
...particularly alienating his base of conservative voters who no longer feel he's defending their values or political interest," says Jean-Marc Lech, co-president of the Ipsos polling group, which puts the President's approval rating at just 39%, down from more than 60% when he was first elected. "His biggest slump has come among conservatives seeing aspects of that activity they don't want any part of - with some now complaining 'this wasn't the kind of leadership I voted...
...Headphones can solve this problem if you're tuning in, say, at your cubicle or in the back of a lecture hall. Battery life is estimated at five hours of TV viewing, but we here in TIME's Techland managed to squeak out more than eight hours on our first go-round. Mileage varies based on signal strength and battery conditioning, but we were impressed nonetheless...
...Avatar arrives in theaters on Dec. 18 to colossal expectations. The movie industry hopes its immersive special effects spark a big-screen renaissance. Fans crave the next Star Wars. It's a heavy burden, even for a man who seems to enjoy doing only things that are hard. Cameron first laid out his vision for the technology he would use in the film in a digital manifesto in the early 1990s; he then labored to perfect it over the course of a decade and a half, creating cameras that let him peer into virtual worlds and pushing for the industry...