I’m apparently now a "young socialist"

I got invited to attend this weekend's French Socialist Party conference that's held every year in beautiful La Rochelle, France.  I'll be writing more about the conference shortly - I just got back and am still a bit exhausted (and I spent Sunday afternoon having coffee with Nobel economist Joe Stiglitz and his wife Anya - Chris and I recorded a half hour video with Stiglitz that I'll be posting over the next few days).

Me and François Hollande, one of
the French Socialist Party
candidates for president.

A funnier moment from the conference, in retrospect, was a very brief photo I took with the lead left-wing presidential candidate, François Hollande.  My friend Frank was the one who snagged Hollande, simply by yelling "Mr. Hollande, there's an American here who wants to meet you." It worked.  (I'm not entirely sure an American presidential candidate would have wanted to take the time to meet a visiting Frenchman who clearly doesn't bring any votes to the table).  Anyway, Hollande was quite nice about it, and as the pic was being taken (and about 100 media cameras were filming us), said to me, "make sure you show the photo to Obama."  I didn't have the heart to tell him that I was perhaps not the best messenger.

Imagine my surprise the next day when I found out my photo with Hollande had made it into one of the largest dailies in France, "Liberation."  An even bigger surprise was the caption.

Liberation's photo of me and Hollande.

Here's what the caption says:

"Hollande, trop occupé a séduire les jeunes socialists, a séché la ceremonie d'ouverture de l'université d'été."

Let me translate:

"Hollande, too busy seducing young socialists, skipped the opening ceremony."

Good thing I shaved and wore the new shirt.