It sounds like France wanted a tough guy, a gutpuncher, thinking he'd solve their problems, but as time went on they decided they wanted a fall guy, somebody to pin all those insoluble problems on. As in some marriages, it was the little things that drove them crazy, the way Sarko was, not any thing major he may have done or failed to do.
Maybe this whole DSK thing didn't help. Speculation that Sarkozy may have been involved could have dragged his campaign down and the country started looking for someone cleaner. I'm not folloing this closely, but it could be France is going to get its Jimmy Carter, the guy who doesn't have the baggage other politicians do, but doesn't have much in the way of other advantages. Sarko would have been better off trying his luck against Strauss-Kahn.
Neh, probably had more to do with the bailouts of other sovereign nations. Bad enough Bush did that with US banks, but I couldn’t see myself voting for anyone that stole my money and put me in the hole to bail out Spain because the butch woman in Germany told me to.