It's Segolene in 2007

The votes have been tallied and Segolene Royal has been given the nod to be the Socialist candidate for president in next years election here in France. Her competition will be her media image-loving counterpart on the right, Sarkozy and probably the runner up from the last election, ultra-right Le Pen. Sarko and Segolene both have impressive (though cheesy) PR machines at work.

Segolene has been the darling of the media for a while, with many charging that she offers less substance and more spin/PR than other candidates, as she has been very light on details other than her talk of being the Tony Blair of France (ugh!) as well as her deep respect for Mitterrand. I guess I know what she means about Blair and if you can carve out the war and the police state policies that would be fine though I'm not a fan of the king of cronyism Mitterrand who took corruption, back room deals and egoism to a whole new level in the country of Napoleon.

If nothing else, the two primary candidates represent change. Change of generations, change of issues, change of concerns, change of direction. Talking about change and delivering are two different things and I remain pessimistic that anyone can bring major changes to the French system, but if someone can do it I'm all for it. There is so much pessimism in the system of France so let's hope whoever the winner is next year, they actually deliver on at least a few of their promises for change.

Let the race begin!