Monday, May 7, 2007

Sarkozy Wins French Presidency -- Vive la France!

CNN on the 2007 French Election I suppose it might have been too absurd even for the French, to have followed up Jacques Chirac with Sigolene Royal as the first female President of France. There will be no such first for the French as a result of this election. (The Americans may attempt that feat next year with Madame Hillaire d'Clinton.) For now, by 53% to 47%, the French voters in a large 85% turnout, have chosen instead, the conservative Nicolas Sarkozy, to succeed to the Presidency. His immediate message was that of Justice and opportunity for all. Sarkozy also vowed better relations with America, whilst calling on a "great country like the US" to lead in problems like Global Warming. Has France turned to the Right? I just heard the Left is already organizing L'Barricades.

Anna de Brux (Hillblogger3) has some awesome nice pictures of Nicolas Sarkozy and Sigolene Royal (though I'm afraid she's none too happy with the result).

AMANDO DORONILA controverts the notion that the 2007 Midterm elections in the Philippines represent a kind of referendum on the President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He thinks the Great Debate is actually a Big Yawn, with no real issues of great importance being debated by the candidates. He also reviews the old arithmetic involving the House of Representatives, but I think he underestimates the power that the opposition will have in the Senate, after a decisive sweep by GO in the May midterms.

MANUEL L. QUEZON III produces a list of his preferred candidates for twelve Senators during next week's election, many of whom won't be in the winning circle. Deservedly so, in some cases.

ARTEMIO V. PANGANIBAN former Supreme Court Chief Justice turned paper pundit, reviews the dastardly (dastardly!) history of the Comelec as seen from the High Bench over the years. It's a wonder that no one has ever gone to jail or been punished really, for any of it! Perhaps the title would've been more explicatory as Another Slap on the Wrist of Comelec.

It seems that Senator Serge Osmena III recently commissioned an unusual survey with the Social Weather Stations to gauge how influential certain famous people are, when it comes to making endorsing political candidates. SWS asked if respondents "would vote" or "would not vote" for a candidate if that candidate had the endorsement of certain famous people.
If Candidates is
Endorsed By:
Would Vote
for Candidate
Would Not Vote
for Candidate
GMA 18% 31%
Fidel Ramos 17% 32%
Joseph Estrada 36% 18%
Cory Aquino 36% 18%
Susan Roces 36% 17%
Kris Aquino 27% 22%

During the last few weeks, I've heard Joseph "Erap" Estrada's old stentorian slur on radio ads endorsing former Sen. John Osmena, whose Genuine Opposition senatorial candidacy seemed to be flagging in the latest SWS survey of the 2007 Senatorial Horse Race. We shall see if Erap's endorsement can actually boost John Osmena back into the Magic 12 for one last hurrah in the Senate. Along with Cory Aquino and Susan Roces, Erap's endorsements can apparently be turned into votes for a candidate. But there is fierce competition for the remaining seats on this particular flight, including some that the Administration's command votes could decide the ultimate fate of, along with the mysterious or miraculous workings of Machinery and the unpredictable vicissitudes of Election Day.

Well, I hope Serge feels better after the news that he'd had a mild stroke a few days ago. At least he has a lot of nice data to ponder over from the Social Weather Stations.

Social Weather Stations Answers the Complaint that it puts words in the Mouth of Public Opinion The pollster's Legal Dept. earned its retainer with this piece replying to the charge brought by an interested citizen that "leading questions" asked in its public opinion surveys actually taint the results and are used as propaganda against the Administration. SWS demonstrates its appreciation for the fine distinctions among ethical, legal and moral in the practice of public opinion polling, which both Philippine jurisprudence and Philippine Commentary hold to be a genre of Journalism, an exercise in the freedom of speech and expression.

10 comments:

krista said...

france, with a phallus for a national symbol, would not be france with a woman-head.

Unknown said...

xta,

Whatever planet did you come from?

That kind of remark is so typical of a plonker.

Djb,

Huh?

You asked a question, 'What did it all mean, Hillblogger'?

What did you mean by "IT"?

Thanks.

Unknown said...

Thought I'd let you know Djb that I'm very happy that Sarkozy won...

I was part of his campaign machinery along with my son who is president of his school's student government - enormous young people support for the man who now incarnates the real France (conservative by nature).

Now, we can get going in France -will be a hard slug but it's gotta be done. But as ever, in France, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. This is something many people don't understand and don't know.

Am so relieved coz I was actually worried - had Royal won, we would have to leave France and remain expats, just wasn't prepared to live in a Socialist Party dominated France. We would have been back in the Mitterand era whose dogma was "nivellement par le bas" (levelling down) which I hated all those years.

I'm so happy that my children will grow up in a forward-looking, France first, work-driven, ethics-oriented right-wing environment...

No more freebies - hated it when I had to work so goddamn hard only to pay almost 65% of my income in taxes while the lazy bones wouldn't get up their backside. I couldn't even fire my secretary and when I finally did, she took me to court.

Well... time we got going in France and am so glad for my children - their future is at least on the right track.

But we have to win the legislative election first ...

engineerOFW said...

I hope that Sarkozy, a member of the ruling party and France's former top law enforcement officer, becomes a more pragmatic player and develops a sounder relationship with the United States than Chirac. As Lester Thurow comments in his recent book on globalization:
"The French overplayed their hand in the Security Council. They could not stopthe United States from invading Iraq, but had they been willing to support a firm deadline for military action if Iraq failed to tally disarm, they could have given inspections and the United Nations a chance to work. But (Chirac) seemed to be more intrested in controlling US military power than in eliminating dangers in Iraq.... and in the process made it more difficult, if anything, for the rest of the world to control American military pwer in the future."

Unknown said...

Re The French overplayed their hand in the Security Council. They could not stopt he United States from invading Iraq,blah, blah

The guy who wrote that piece is out of his depth.

Overplayed? France used its right of veto - the purpose of the veto was to let the US-UK coalition of invaders know that France did not support the invasion of Iraq and the veto served its purpose... Who can say today that France was wrong to have refused to invade a Nation based on WMD lies? Who? If I understand, even Bush's own CIA chief Tenet is saying now that Bush over-reacted.

Just to get things right, Sarkozy WILL NOT, I repeat NOT co-invade another country at the behest of the US. So let's not get fooled by this plonker rhetoric by some digruntled American pillock, shall we?

If France has to do it all over again, Sarkozy will not hesitate to refuse backing the US over an illegal invasion and war. (He declared this unequivocally during the last face the nation interview on national TV a few days before election.)

Let there be no ambiguity about that!

engineerOFW said...

I think Thurow is saying that Chirac cast his veto, but what he vetoed did not get vetoed.

john marzan said...

Anna:
You asked a question, 'What did it all mean, Hillblogger'?

What did you mean by "IT"?


DJB:
Anna de Brux (Hillblogger3) has some awesome nice pictures of Nicolas Sarkozy and Sigolene Royal (though I'm afraid she's none too happy with the result).

john marzan said...

here's an interesting blog.

john marzan said...

oo nga pala, sino nga nga ba ang iboboto mo sa senado, tito deej?

are you going to vote?

Ben Vallejo said...

We should not read too much about Sarkozy's pro-American stance. Sarkozy's first priority is to salvage French leadership of the European Union.

His pro-Americanism whatever that may be is linked with French leadership of the EU