Like many charming, clever people, Emmanuel Macron is used to getting his own way.<\/p>\n
Still only 46 years old, France\u2019s suave leader can already point back to a glittering career path strewn with obstacles avoided or overcome.<\/p>\n
A meteoric rise, the transformation of France\u2019s political landscape, the formation of his own triumphant party, securing the presidency twice, subduing the gilets jaunes <\/em>(yellow-jacket) protests, pension reform, and this summer\u2019s glorious Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s incredibly smart, a very hard worker, dynamic and creative,\u201d conceded a former minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, in a recent French newspaper interview, despite falling out with the president.<\/p>\n So how do you persuade a man like Emmanuel Macron to accept that he may, at last, have messed up badly?<\/p>\n The short answer, judging from the past few weeks, appears to be that you cannot.<\/p>\n Ever since Macron took what is widely considered to have been a rash, poorly timed, and profoundly counter-productive decision to dissolve France\u2019s parliament and call early elections in June, France\u2019s president has been struggling to find a way to frame the outcome as anything but a humiliating personal defeat.<\/p>\n