Lexington Green of the Chicago Boyz has dug up an interesting Walter Mead piece on French anti-Americanism and its historical roots; it may help U.S. readers understand what's going on in the minds of the French intellectual elite. Meanwhile, I think Dan Drezner's update to his earlier “Dark Day” post is on-target:

I strongly suspect that France has grossly miscalculated the administration's willingness to act regardless of what transpires at the Security Council this week.

Chirac and de Villepin think U.S. foreign policy is not that different from that of the French. In that, they have indeed “grossly miscalculated.”

By the way, $20 says that the increasingly batty Helen Thomas hasn't been credentialed for tonight's primetime press conference.