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Posted on 04/14/2012 8:24:41 PM PDT by Cincinna
Even after a precampaign diet last year — less wine, less cheese and especially less chocolate — François Hollande, the Socialist who is currently favored to become the next president of France, still has a soft face and looks slightly sloppy in his medium-gray suits. He used to be referred to as “Flanby,” after a brand of wobbly caramel pudding, just one of a string of insulting nicknames for a convivial man considered always at the second rank of politics. He has been called “a living marshmallow” and “Mr. Little Jokes,” and just last year, Martine Aubry, the head of the Socialist Party, described him as a couille molle, a nasty way of saying he has no guts. Recently, a frustrated Nicolas Sarkozy, fighting hard to be re-elected, fumed: “Hollande is useless! He’s useless, do you understand?”
A name that stuck for a long time is “Mr. Royal,” given to him after his former partner and mother of his four children, Ségolène Royal, became a minister and then defeated him to become the Socialist candidate in 2007. This time, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was considered the obvious choice atop the Socialist ticket, until he was accused (the charges were dropped) of raping a maid in New York City. Only after Strauss-Kahn’s downfall did Hollande — who at 57 has never held a ministerial portfolio and who, from 1997 to 2008, presided over a badly bruised Socialist Party — look like a truly viable candidate.
And he’s still an extremely unlikely one, especially during this time of economic crisis, of anxiety about Islam and immigration and of confusion about France’s reduced role in the world. One reason for his success, surely, is that the French have grown tired of Sarkozy
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Sarkozy is having an enormous campaign rally tomorrow Place de la Concorde. He is running a hard, touch campaign for re-election, but the polls are not looking good.
The French are really great at playing ostrich, and there are a hundred more Mohamed Merah’s waiting for the call to action.
Hollande has stated he will immediately legalize gay marriage, gay adoption, and euthanasia. In ever poll for the last 20 years, French people have said no to this 70-30%.
He will also raise the top tax rate to 75%. That just means business owners and job creators will leave France and take their money and jobs with them.
France: c’est à vous de choisir! Liberty or tyranny, Liberty or Socialism.
Maybe they will wake up in time!
The leeches have taken over France, and they’re too stupid to know what happens to parasites when they kill the host.
Sadly, we’re not far behind...
If Hollande does win over Sarkosy it will certainly show the condition of the people of France, and that they've moved 'far' to the left.....hopefully they will remember why they said no to his agenda for 20 yrs.
Is the NY Times trying to tell us that socialism is centrist again??
Sarkosy is the best President in the history of the Fifth French Republic, I guess he is too smart and too strong for the French...
NYT feature article on the Socialist Party candidate: he’s not cool, he’s mushy. Weak, Wusses, But Socialism, it’s cool.
“French people have said no to this 70-30%.”
So, why on earth would they elect him?
I also just want to say that I think Martine Aubry and Segolene Royal are both just wonderful names. I’m sure I’d have no use for either of these people, but I love their names.
I wish our pols had names like that, although some are not too bad.
Hey, we have Ovide Lamontagne!
Very strange. The French are getting as weird as American voters. Thanks for keeping us all up to date!
. . . even after calling Netanyahu a liar?
Sarkozy is the best President in the history of the Fifth French Republic
Thanks Cincinna.
He called Netanyahu a liar? I never heard of that...Why did he say that?
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