Silly Little Country

Sarko!

The French did the right thing, and chose not to entrust power to the twit who ran against Sarko; I had such hopes for her in May 2006, when I was in France, but the campaign exposed her, as they so often do (think John Kerry and Paul Martin).
Abiola Lapite had what I thought were the best comments in the various blogs I scan in the morning. He addresses one key issue nicely, that those most likely to riot are most likely to benefit from Sarkozy's plans, and he discusses what will be standard self-styled leftie spin for a while:

The rioters currently battling it out with the police over Sarkozy's victory may not see things clearly, but the fact is that the man they hate so much is about as close to a "friend" as they've had in the last 40 years or so, a man who recognizes that worthwhile jobs aplenty cannot be created by government fiat, that there is a limit to how much the state can take in taxes before the urge to work is completely blunted, that unions represent only the selfish interests of their members rather than those of the public at large, and that the rule of law is fundamental to the functioning of a civilized society. If Sarkozy is even halfway successful at carrying out his proposed reforms, the day will surely come when these very rioters and their spoilt offspring will look back in comfortable, ungrateful ignorance on the "bad" [sic] old days of Sarko just like stupid, complacent, Islington-dwelling, chianti-swilling British lefties who like to bash the very Thatcher who laid the foundations for their sanctimonious prosperity.

PS: Der Spiegel wastes no time in putting out a predictably dishonest smear job on France's new President elect, tarring Sarkozy with the failures of Chirac's presidency as if Sarkozy were in any position to call all the shots over the last five years, and reaching for the meaningless "neoconservative" shibboleth just in case the first rhetorical sleight-of-hand falls through. If ever proof were required of Sarkozy's superior fitness for the job over his opponent, Der Spiegel's article provides it: like Britain's Grauniad, this is a magazine which has a record of amazing consistency in always choosing the wrong side on matters of economic policy ...

Thanks, Abiola. There is NO way I could put this all so well.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 7:13 AM