Enlarge Michel Spingler/AP

President-elect Francois Hollande waves from a Socialist Party headquarters balcony in Paris Monday May 7, 2012.

Michel Spingler/AP

President-elect Francois Hollande waves from a Socialist Party headquarters balcony in Paris Monday May 7, 2012.

The election of socialist Francois Hollande as France's new president has leached into the U.S. election as some conservatives view it as giving them an opening to attack President Obama who, along with his agenda, has been labeled socialistic by many on the right.

U.S. Senate candidate from Florida, George Lemieux, for instance, took the opportunity of Hollande's win to tweet a warning:

"New president of France is calling for a top tax rate of 75%. America, see your future with 4 more years of Obama."

Meanwhile, the traditional phone call an American president makes to congratulate any new leader of a major American ally became cause for suspicion, as did the invitation Obama extended to Hollande to visit the White House before NATO's meeting in Chicago and the G-8 Summit at Camp David, both later in May.

Conservatives shared the link to an Investors Business Daily piece headlined "Obama vows close ties to France's Socialist leader" as proof that Obama was somehow revealing his true colors through such actions.

Enlarge ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

Vice President Biden at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, August 21, 2011.

ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

Vice President Biden at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, August 21, 2011.

While in China, Vice President Biden inadvertently stepped into the U.S. culture wars with a seemingly off-hand comment about China's one-child policy that has caused American abortion opponents to rebuke him.

In the question and answer session following his speech to an audience at Sichuan University Sunday, Biden was asked what the U.S. planned to do to fix its fiscal problems to reassure Chinese holders of U.S. debt. Fair enough considering the Chinese hold $1 trillion in U.S. debt.

Biden explained that U.S. policymakers had already agreed to make more that $1 trillion in cuts. He even got down into the weeds and alluded to the congressional supercommittee.

Then, in what appeared to be an attempt at striking a sympathetic chord with his Chinese audience, Biden alluded to the looming demographic disasters faced by both China and the U.S — ever fewer workers paying to support ever more retirees:

But as I was talking to some of your leaders, you share a similar concern here in China. You have no safety net. Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I'm not second-guessing — of one child per family. The result being that you're in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.

A scary moment for French President Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday when a man along a handshake line at a public event grabbed his shoulder and pulled hard, nearly tugging the leader of France to the ground.

Sarkozy reacted quickly and was apparently unharmed; moments later he was back to shaking hands as security officers gang-tackled and arrested his assailant, a 32-year old male.

It was just the latest reminder of the ever present potential for danger at such moments which is why presidential security teams almost always looks edgy in such situations.

The attack on a national leader by an onlooker in a crowd was reminiscent of the 2009 assault on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who suffered face and mouth injuries when a man in a crowd threw a souvenir statuette that hit him in the face.