Nagin Planning Middle East and European Tour
To Look More “Mayoral”

CITY HALL — According to highly placed administration sources, Mayor C. Ray Nagin has started planning a two-week overseas trip to bolster his flagging image at home and to look “more Mayoral.”

The trip would begin on August 29th, 2008.

Planning is still “in the early, fixin’-to-get-ready-to stage,” according to the source, but several foreign governments have already been contacted about the possibility of the mayor making public appearances and speeches in front of famous landmarks.

Famous backdrops under consideration for Nagin’s speeches include the Toblerone chocolate factory in Switzerland and the site where the Little Dutch Boy stuck his finger in the dyke.

“We want the City of New Orleans–no, the world–to see C. Ray Nagin for what he truly is: global citizen, humanitarian, and smooth-talking cultured man,” said a high-ranking Nagin administration official.

“It worked for Obama, didn’t it? What’s the big difference between him and us?”

‘Nothing,” he added.

The trip itself would be a mixture of “downtime” and “worktime,” with the Mayor holding talks with foreign officials, meeting with members of the New Orleans ex-pat community living abroad, and sightseeing

Possible stops on the Mayor’s itinerary?

Jerusalem, Dubai, Istanbul, Paris, London, and Amsterdam.

“Definitely Amsterdam,” the source added.