When you hear Rudy Giuliani use his standard campaign joke…

In his dream–which Giuliani claims he’s had at least five times–he sees Sarkozy flying in a jet from France to the United States. As the Frenchman soars over the Atlantic, another jet approaches from the opposite direction. The two planes pass so close they nearly collide, and Sarkozy sees three passengers in the other plane. “Sarkozy waves to the three people, and they wave back,” Giuliani explained merrily. “It’s Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards. They’re going to France to see if they can get all those failed French policies, take them over here, and put a lid on our growth.”

… do you hear “a crudely demagogic attack on Democrats as un-American”? The New Republic’s Michael Crowley does.

By the way, when I’ve heard it, Giuliani says that Sarkozy is on his way to the United States to study how our policies help economic growth. The joke is that just as the France’s economic policies have failed so badly that their leaders are giving up on them and trying new approaches, America’s Democrats want to implement their own version of the old French policies… Without that detail, the dream/joke loses something.