SEGOLENE ROYAL'S COLLAPSE CONTINUES

UK GUARDIAN:

Ségolène Royal is hoping her appearance on a prime-time TV show on Monday night will win over a sceptical French public after a week of campaign traumas including an economic adviser's resignation, lacklustre poll ratings and children booing her at a sports ground.

"Maman Ségo," the first woman with a chance of becoming president of France, was supposed to have spent this week basking in glory after setting out her socialist programme to protect the nation's poor and vulnerable in the face of her rightwing opponent Nicolas Sarkozy's plans for tax cuts and free market economic reform. But Ms Royal, a mother of four who has styled herself as the mother of the nation, instead faced polls showing Mr Sarkozy stretching his 6-8% lead. The French left as a whole is now at its lowest popularity rating since 1969...

ZAMAN/REUTERS:

Socialist Royal, hoping to revive her election campaign after several gaffes and reports of internal party divisions, told supporters she would boost education spending if she was elected in the April/May poll. "If the nation is capable of freeing money for a second aircraft carrier, I am pledging here that this additional room of maneuver, this money, will not go to national defense but to national education," she said in a speech late on Thursday.

SHE'S PROMISED MORE WELFARE, HIGHER WAGES, MORE PROTECTIONISM, AND NOW MORE TEXTBOOKS INSTEAD OF A ROBUST NATIONAL DEFENSE. THIS IS ALL TYPICAL LEFTIST CRAP. WHAT IS NOVEL IS THAT THE FRENCH SEEM TO BE IGNORING THE BS. PERHAPS THEY ARE WAKING UP FROM THEIR LONG SLUMBER... I HOPE SO... I PRAY SO!