Socialist Desperation in France

There is an old saying that people vote their: (pocketbooks, party, resentments, aspirations, moral convictions, values, identity, or self-interest). Sunday’s vote in France will add another non-definitive data point to the electoral evidence. My choice in this specific vote is fears. People vote their fears.

Europe (finally!) gets the War on Terror: The words "cynical" and "immoral" were used by Sarkozy recently to describe the Boomer Left. Europe's vacation from reality is reaching its natural limits, and public opinion is sobering up fast.

With just hours before the decisive election the socialist candidate is trailing badly in the polls. In what some label desperation the left is waving the bloody shirt to the public. As time winds down Ségolène Royal accuses her opponent of being a threat to democracy and warns of violence if Sarkozy is elected.

Hillblogger 3: There is no doubt in my mind that while Royal's performance has enhanced her stature as a politician, someone to reckon with seriously in the not too distant French legislative elections, her "tantrums" and "woolliness" her debate with Sarkozy turned off many "centrist" voters. Even friends of mine who were hardline Socialists were unanimous - Royal blew it big time when she went on unprecedented name-calling attacks against Sarkozy, i.e., liar, immoral, dangerous, brutal, divisive, etc. Not at all presidential, they say.

American style capitalism is the antithesis of maximum government dependency at the core of socialism. Nicolas Sarkozy is realist enough to understand the cherished French welfare state will not survive assault by an outside world filled with poverty, anger and values intrinsically opposed to western concepts including individual freedom of thought.

EU Referendum: Nicolas Sarkozy who is, let us not forget, the son of a Hungarian refugee from the Soviets, has been talking about events in Chechnya in a way that is not entirely complimentary to Russia, pointing out that a great country ought not to be handling matters that way. On his return from a visit to Washington he said: “When I think that those who disapprove of my visit with Bush are the same ones who would shake hands with Putin, it makes me quietly laugh”.

French extraterritorial voters go to the ballots Saturday then national residents vote Sunday. The direction of Europe will be shifting.