*Communists* don't like rioting much, either. Well, rioting against THEM, that is.

Cheers,
Dave at Garfield Ridge

Let's see. Nazi = National Socialist. Chirac = socialist. BusHitler = Republican, democratic federalist (for the most part, anyway).

Who's the biggest danger?

Oh, yeah, I forgot. BusHitler, because he's a Christian.

LePen and Sarkozy are "extreme-right National Front(ists)" only in the sense that they think France should actually remain a separate country, unlike the demented socialists there who want to abandon nationalism for Euroism.

When I see so-called "conservative" European candidates labeled as such, I can't help but think of Mark Steyn's useful observation: You know how in some hotels even a small turn of the dial will change the water temperature from freezing to scalding? Well, Europe's political temperature is the opposite of that; you can turn the dial all the way from the left to the right, but from a Western perspective there is no change.

Excellent news. The French press (and Villepin and Chirac) had done all they could early in rioting to attack Sarkozy.

Sarkozy has praised the US system in the past and can be expected to push for a loosening of labor practices (albeit without success).

He is known for pointing out that the French social model isn't much on social given so many French are unable to work, and even less of a model as no one is emulating it.

This can't be true! I just read in the WaPO Editorial yesterday that Sarkozy was losing out to Cruella DeVile, uhm I mean Dominique de Villepin in polls as a result of the riots and that his hopes for the presidency have been dashed!

Who am I supposed to beleive? Some blogger who cites specific poll numbers from a reputable source? Or some WaPo writer who makes unsubstantiated statements and then draws conclusions from them?

I’m not sure that last bit qualifies as a zinger. Le Pen came in second in the last presidential election, and all these youths from… oh, no place in particular... just asking for the recognition they deserve, probably gave his appeal an enormous boost. If Sarkozy can attract voters who othrewise felt they had no alternative but to vote for Le Pen, that’s great news.

I haven’t followed the French press, but I‘d be surprised if anyone is really equating Sarkozy and Le Pen. Sarkozy is conservative only by French standards, but he admires that nasty Anglo-Saxon free market economy and hopes to bring some of that spirit to France. Le Pen is just a genuine thug. He hates Muslims, yes, but then he also hates black people. And gays. And mongrel Americans. And Jews, most especially Jews. (Google up some of his quotes if you don’t believe me.) Hitler and Vichy? Not so bad. The notion that Sarkozy, who’s Jewish by background, is some kind of Le Pen fellow traveler is probably too ridiculous even for the French press.