Still, this disregard would surprise no member of the foreign press corps. "We are not a priority," understates Jerome Bernard, a Washington-based reporter for Agence France-Presse.
This pariah status is often a sharp contrast to the journalist's standing back home.
"Going to Washington is one of the best assignments for international reporters," says Richard Wolffe, a diplomatic correspondent for Newsweek who covered the 2000 campaign for London's Financial Times. "They come here and they think they're a big deal. And it's an incredible shock to their system to find out that Washington doesn't give a [expletive] about them."
Neither does Columbus, Albuquerque, Orlando -- or the candidates and staffers who shuttle between them. To many campaign officials, foreign journalists -- like head colds -- are an inevitable nuisance of campaign life, except that the head colds go away.
Erik Smith, a press secretary for Dick Gephardt's presidential campaign, says, "The problem is most acute when the reporter is a pretty big shot back home and they can't figure out why you don't fall to your knees when they show up in Boone, Iowa."
Bernard speaks longingly of days spent in Brussels, when he wrote about NATO and the European Union and people cared. "I used to cover ministry meetings," says Bernard. "People would read what I wrote. It was a good way to feel important."
Covering a U.S. campaign is not. "I have a sense that no one reads what I write," Bernard says. "The campaigns don't try to convince me of anything. There is no feedback. They don't really care."
As a French reporter, Bernard is in an unusual position, especially when he travels with Kerry, whom some Republicans have ridiculed for "looking French," and who is sensitive about doing anything to advance this notion. Some U.S. reporters mischievously urged Bernard to speak to Kerry in French, which the senator is conversant in.
Bernard demurred. "I don't wish to be part of the story," he says.
Officials from current and past campaigns say that foreign reporters can serve a range of useful purposes. Politicians and their spokesmen often call on foreign journalists during news conferences as a way to steer the discussion away from tense subjects.
Foreign media can also serve as harmless audiences for surrogates who are not fit for domestic audiences.
"You always have these very self-important supporters who believe the best work they can do for the campaign is to appear on television," says Chris Lehane, the press secretary for Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign. "They were often the last person whose mug you wanted a swing voter in Florida to see."
Foreign reporters can also be vehicles for practical jokes, says Lehane, who recalls doing an interview with Finnish TV in which he gave his name as Jano Cabrera, another Gore press person.
"Jano" told the audience that he was a "huge fan of Finland" and encouraged viewers to become his pen pal.
"We then had a friend pretend to be the Finnish ambassador who followed up with a call to Jano," Lehane says.
In most cases, international reporters say they've enjoyed covering presidential campaigns, despite their marginalized status. And their U.S. counterparts -- particularly in the print media -- say the lack of access and cooperation they experience is not appreciably different from what everyone else gets at this stage. "Everyone in print is a foreign journalist during the last month of a campaign," says USA Today columnist Walter Shapiro.
Shortly after the debate, Le Sommier is seen in the media filing center pleading with Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter for an interview with the senator. "We did a cover story on Bush," he says plaintively. "When are you going to start paying more attention to the foreign press?"
Cutter smiles tightly and walks away.
