French politics: Hollande or Sarkozy?
toutbrun
Washington, USAPosts: 1,501MI6 Agent
Any thoughts on this debate?
If you can't trust a Swiss banker, what's the world come to?
Comments
its a little bit funny that one guy's name is mr hollande.
erm...... other thoughts........ not right now, i'll get back to ya.
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
http://apbateman.com
Secret agent, are you from the USA?
Nope. Britain.
http://apbateman.com
i just hope that mr hollande wins what ever it is thats going on, then we can say that holland is in charge of france
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
It looks like Hollande will be in charge of France. Nicolas Sarkozy is trailing Francois Hollande by six per cent in the latest opinion polls. Sarkozy looks set to be the first French president since Valery Giscard d'Estaing in 1981 not to win a second term.
French election: Sarkozy and Hollande in final push
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17947929
Read Paul Krugman.
Since when are we supposed to judge politicians on their entertainment qualities? I guess you loved Bush...
I don't think Dom was saying the sarkozeeey was great cos he mixed things up a bit with some juggling and plate spinning, rather that the way he's made some 'break from the norm' decisions, similar to Australian politics, that makes him a better character.
Bush was a puppet dancing to daddy's tune, a **** 'tard who said he hope humans and fish could coexist peacefully, then tried opening a locked door. If it were a comedy sketch show it'd have been hilarious, sadly he was in charge of one of the more influential world powers.
I don't think you can put tsar tea cozy in the same category as that.
Vive le droit à la libre expression! Je suis Charlie!
www.helpforheroes.org.uk
www.cancerresearchuk.org
I think you are wrong in writing that Bush jr danced to his father's tune. Bush sr. was a conservative realpolitik-president with a lot of experience and inteligence. His son was ... not.
One example is that senior could have invaded and occupied the whole of Iraq, but chose not to. Many of junior's cabinet and closest advisors were people who were too extreme for senior Bush.
Anyway, I think it's interesting the election. Sarkozy and Hollande really seem to detest one another, and it's a battle for France's soul, which has been up for grabs in the past. It's hard to be right wing in France due to the Revolution thing and the sheer number of strikes and so on. It's a different culture and hard to get your head around sometimes. If you engage in a street protest in London it has that bolshy working class loser vibe to it, it's as if a) the Establishment sees you as dangerous and a threat so you deserve kettling and b) you've lost the argument anyway if you have to resort to that, you're not travelling to work in a company car are you? Not saying I agree with that, rather there's a sense of futility to all protest here.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
http://apbateman.com
Roger Moore 1927-2017
The FULL article.
Socialist Francois Hollande wins French presidency
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17975660
result, only a vey acurate poll ). In Britian we'd have programs through the night as each result came in mabey taking
two days to get the full results.
I was amazed when Nicolas Sarkozy conceded defeat barely twenty minutes after the projected poll result came through. He was less than 4% behind. The projected result was Francois Hollande 51.90% - Nicolas Sarkozy 48.10%. The final result was Hollande 51.62% - Sarkozy 48.38%. So, the projected result was very accurate. It is based on a representative sample of the votes cast, not by asking people who they voted for.
Spot on Minigeff. I would never vote for anyone based on their charisma, their race, religion, gendre, their entertainment value or simply 'change for change's sake.' The only thing I am interested in is how they're going to do the job in the areas that are most important to me at the time. Perhaps the most competent leader in Europe today is Mario Monti of Italy, yet I have pencils with more personality. However, all else being equal, someone with a bit of character is always welcome in the dour world of politics. I preferred Medvedev to Putin (although there was very little to choose between the puppet and the puppetmaster) but the tiger-hunting, bareback-riding Putin is undeniably more entertaining.
On a purely non-political basis, I am sorry to see Sarkozy gone. On a political basis, I am very concerned by Hollande's suggestions that the European pacts will be torn up and that austerity is dead and I hope he just said that to pander to voters who don't realise that the only way forward is a painful one. The stock markets and Euro are down significantly already today based on yesterday's election results in France and Greece and the road ahead for Europe is considerably more uncertain today than it was 3 or 4 weeks ago.
I suggest you read Paul Krugman's New York Times columns, where he weekly proves that austerity does not work.
I suggest you don't, because Paul Krugman is an idiot. Krugman currently believes the Federal Reserve needs to increase inflation which he believes will result in increased economic activity and increased job creation. Problem is, interest rates are already zero, so all the Fed could do is print more money, which will devalue the currency. In addition, once ionflation starts you don't just waive a flag and it stops.
Finally, here is a 2002 quote from Mr. Krugman
"The basic point is that the recession of 2001 wasn't a typical postwar slump, brought on when an inflation-fighting Fed raises interest rates and easily ended by a snapback in housing and consumer spending when the Fed brings rates back down again. This was a prewar-style recession, a morning after brought on by irrational exuberance.To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble."
Yea, that housing bubble turned out just fine.
Yes, more inflation is needed.
These are economic facts.
Not to mention that this is what markets want. Markets are scared of austerity and what the Republicans propose.