White House weighs French ‘Non’ on charter

‘‘When the fog clears, you will see that, in fact, the EU remains exactly as it was,’’ says John Bruton, EU’s representative in the United States. Still, one senior administration official said that the vote was worrisome because it made Europe more unpredictable, even as some factions in the administration could see it as checking the growing powerhouse across the Atlantic. Although Bush has repeatedly spoken of his desire for a strong Europe, some administration conservatives have seen a unified and independent-minded Europe as an unwelcome counterweight to American independence.

William Kristol, editor of the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard, said: ‘‘There’s now a chance for fresh thinking in Europe, and that fresh thinking could be more open to something like Bush’s view of the world.’’ —NYT