MAUREEN DOWD: La Campagne, C’est moi

[kevinmc]

LILLE, France

It’s hard not to be drawn to a presidential candidate with a name like a Bond girl, a smile like an angel, a figure that looks great in a bikini at 53, a campaign style like Joan of Arc, and a buffet for the press corps brimming with crustless fromage sandwiches, icy chocolate profiteroles, raspberry parfaits, red Bordeaux, espresso and little almond gâteaux. (When in France, let us eat cake.)

Ségolène Royal brought back the sizzle to socialism, raising the ire of Stephen Colbert’s right-wing TV host, who warned that “socialism is always a threat but never more so than when it looks like this.”

At first, Ségolène seemed like the ideal candidate for a country that knew it needed change but didn’t really want change, because she looked like change but wasn’t really going to change anything. But the infatuation dampened, like a spring romance.

I entered the Ségosphere, as her supporters call it, Thursday evening in Lille, for the last big rally — and perhaps last hurrah — of her “serene revolution,” as it’s dubbed.

The unmarried mother of four and daughter of a misogynistic army colonel entered the factorylike hall to a militant techno beat, gliding through the cheering crowd of 20,000 with a radiant smile and bright red jacket. Supporters, including many young ethnic Arab men and older women in head scarves up front, strained to touch and pat her.......

http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/05/maureen-dowd-la-campagne-cest-moi.html

[Mass]

1. Maureen, shut up.

[Joey Liberal]

2. Maureen - keep it up! n/t

[Mass]

3. You're jocking. She is a more moderate Ann Coulter, nothing else.

[skiddlybop]

5. Beltway insider,

too rich to care any more. As a result, I don't care about her.

Totally out of touch with actual working people.

[Selatius]

4. If France wants Sarkozy, they can have him.

Unlike the US, I don't think election fraud is a problem over there.

[bullimiami]

6. i guess half of france is envious of the fabulous us government so they want to emulate it?

we will see.