Faced with a choice for its new president between the traffic-stopping Tony Blair and a capable but little-known Belgian, the EU's 27 leaders settled on Herman Van Rompuy, a man who would scarcely stop two mothers with strollers outside his own country.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who was in charge of the election process, gave the game away when he said that Van Rompuy was a man whose choice would "leave room for everyone."
By insisting that "unity is our strength, diversity our wealth," Van Rompuy has signaled that he intends to be a consensus-building chairman, an agenda assembler, not a leader who will blazon Europe's name across the world and mingle monthly with the likes of Barack Obama and Hu Jintao.
So why has the EU turned its back on the man who might have supplied the stardust, Tony Blair?
The simple answer is that for most of the 27 EU leaders, Blair was too big for the job. They feared he would have his own agenda and overshadow them. Many saw him as an over-close ally of America who had divided Europe when he helped George W. Bush to prosecute the Iraq war.
More on CNN.com – More on Blair here