Sarko, Ségo, and me

Contrary to Agnes Poirier, even though I was a strong supporter of Ségolène Royal, I am not feeling gloomy about the victory of Nicolas Sarkozy in the French presidential election. I believe that he is the wrong choice for France, but I am hoping that he will be a one-term president, one who will govern France while the French left finds its identity and the French political center builds its party. I’ve read a lot of articles trying to analyze the elections and to figure out why Ségo lost and Sarko won. My own analysis is that the French were readier for a man who has great ambitions and great faults that for a woman who has great ambitions and great faults. I’m not equaling Ségo and Sarko, but just suggesting that the choice of Sarko tells us that the French feels uncertain about the future and that for that reason they were unwilling to take a risk in my opinion that was worth taking by electing a woman who had been until two years ago a political star. I said last year that Ségolène Royal has a better chance to become president of France than Hillary Clinton had of becoming president of the United States, I was wrong because I didn’t take into account the fact that Ségo was seen as outsider by the French socialists while Hillary is a powerful insider who will have no problem imposing her will on her party in she wins its nomination. So what was the French election really about? It was about picking a French politician who was less careful and bolder than Chirac. The French wanted action and because France is still a macho country, only a man can be the symbol of action. In other words, Sarko won because he was seen as a super hero while Ségo lost because she was only seen as super nanny and the French want to be saved not to be baby-sitted.