Looking in the Crystal Ball

Marine Le Pen is more than just visible at the French websites, she has become one of the main topics of discussion. Here, for starters, is a short item from Nations Presse, a site connected to the Front National:

Two thousand nine hundred fifty-two persons voted at the Grandes Gueules website (a blog of Radio Monte Carlo), to determine who will be present in the second round of the 2012 presidential election.

The results are undeniable: Marine Le Pen and François Hollande.

Not Nicolas Sarkozy, who will be incapable of making it through the first round.

Marine Le Pen is even ahead in the betting with 1,071 votes, compared to 979 for François Hollande.

The listeners to Radio Monte Carlo were lucid enough to realize the emptiness of Sarkozy's record (business woes, higher debt, unemployment, poverty, crime, greater than ever immigration), and the strength of Marine Le Pen's recovery plan.

François Hollande, the candidate with no ideas, the other half of the UMPS, only came in second.

Note: Regarding this radio program, according to Wikipedia, it consists of two parts: first, two and a half hours of round table discussion with listener participation, followed by a half-hour interview with a person currently in the news. The show was created in 2004 by its two hosts Alain Marschall and Olivier Truchot. Recently Tariq Ramadan was one of its celebrity guests.

In an interview with Le Parisien which I hope to post in condensed form, Marine Le Pen asserts that Sarkozy is out of the race, and that he may not even run as a candidate.

If she and François Hollande face off, she has a chance. But so much can happen between now and then.