Presidency-minded Sarkozy wins party leadership (former French prez)

Associated Press ^ | Nov 29, 2014 5:57 PM EST | Jamey Keaten

[Olog-hai]

As political encores go, former President Nicolas Sarkozy didn’t quite get the warm embrace from his party that many French had expected in his return to public life on Saturday.

The hard-charging Gaullist who once made headlines for reviving France’s U.S. ties, helping depose Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and marrying a former supermodel while in office won a race for leader of France’s main conservative party—but with a margin of victory that was smaller than many had predicted.

Sarkozy’s victory as chief of the Union for a Popular Movement, or UMP, was a crucial first step on his road to a far bigger prize: He hopes to return to the Elysée Palace in the 2017 presidential election—five years after he failed in his re-election bid against Socialist François Hollande and cast himself into political exile. …

[Olog-hai]

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss?

[dfwgator]

Sarkozy is about as good as you’re going to get in La France.

[Olog-hai]

Then they’re definitely going nowhere, again.

[dfwgator]

He’s still a hundred times better than Hollande.

[RedMDer]

We're going to need a big push to
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[fieldmarshaldj]

*sigh*

[sergeantdave]

It’s way past time to hang AP Nazi propaganda pigs from lampposts.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

[Impy]

Well? It doesn’t seem like he has strong opposition within his own party, he easily beat a former minister of his.

He’s come out against queer marriage, and moved right on immigration too, that’s good.

I tell you, I’d much prefer him to the socialist Hollandaise sauce or the Nazi slag LePen.

[Impy]

His main foe for the UMP POTFR ( ;) ) nomination appears to be Alain Juppé, who is to Sark’s left.

[BillyBoy]

>> His main foe for the UMP POTFR ( ;) ) nomination appears to be Alain Juppé, who is to Sark’s left. <<

Yikes. That would be like liberal closet Democrat Bruce Rauner beating ultra liberal closet Democrat Neal Kashkari in a bid to be Chairman of the RNC.

[fieldmarshaldj]

If he hadn’t been so mediocre the first go-around, he’d not have lost to Hollande. They need new blood.

[Impy]

There doesn’t appear to be anyone else of stature in the party, that isn’t to Sark’s left.

Cincinna?

[BillyBoy]

>> He’s come out against queer marriage <<

Madame Sarkozy seems to have missed the memo on this, she's militantly in favor of the homo agenda, which effectively makes her husband's "opposition" to it worthless. Reminds me of Ahnuld's token "support" for Bush in 2004 while his wife and kids were all pimping Kerry.

>> and moved right on immigration too <<

Again, similar to how Romney took a "more conservative" position on immigration in 2012, in order to win the GOP nomination. Now he's showing his true colors. It meant nothing. Sarkozy has to appear "tough" on this issue because the neo-NAZI crowd is exploiting the issue and wooing voters by running as immigration hardliners.

>> I tell you, I’d much prefer him to the socialist Hollandaise sauce or the Nazi slag LePen. <<

Hmmm. Between the unofficial socialist, the official one, and the NAZI, I'll take None of the Above. There's similarly no decent choice in countries like Russia (Putin's leading opponents were an outright Stalin-style communist and a neo-NAZI), and Northern Ireland. From what I've heard though, Holland's actually done one or two decent things, and I can't remember "conservative" Sarkozy doing anything good in office (his fan club here on FR gushed over him because his kids & wife were cute and he liked to vacation in America, as if that magically excused decades of French deceit and backstabbing. Iran's President should take a cue from that and announce he wants to vacation here every year, so therefore it doesn't matter how much he wants to wipe Israel off the map and murder anyone who brings a bible into the country).

If Holland has done one or two decent things IN SPITE of being an outright unabashed Socialist, I'm reminded of the situation in Mexico where the "ultra corrupt left-wing party" actually turned out to be an improvement over the allegedly "conservative" party down there.

>> If he hadn’t been so mediocre the first go-around, he’d not have lost to Hollande. They need new blood. <<

Good point. Polls have also shown that the one way the UMP can manage to lose to Holland despite his unpopularity is to nominate the even less popular Sarkozy again. I'm reminded of the Oberweis crowd shoving him down our throats because he has "name ID" (none of it good, but hey, at least people have heard of him).