Scoop!! Obama is President thanks to a French Socialist!

by Fripouille | January 20, 2009 at 04:55 am

509 views | 48 Recommendations | 17 comments

I can't believe what I just read in Liberation, a French paper.

Ségolène Royal, a prominent French Socialist who is in Washington right now, gave an interview there in which she said that Obama won partially because of lessons learned by Obama campaign team staffers who came here to Paris France to meet various politicians from different parties.

She says that her Presidential campaign ideas during the French Presidential election were used by those staffers (and, by extension, Obama) to help construct his campaign. Those ideas were, in substance, 'Participative Democracy' and 'Citizen's Jurys' to oversee Government action.

Here it is, straight from the horse's mouth;

"Obama's campaign team came to our headquarters in Boulevard Saint-Germain during the campaign. They adapted my methods to the American system, but on a bigger scale of course. Which goes to prove that I started that system before them".

So there you have it folks, The credit for Obama's victory, or at least a sizeable part of it, goes to French Socialism and its ideas.

Oh, and in case you didn't know already, her Presidential campaign tactics led to her humiliating defeat in what was a more than winnable election. A campaign that French Socialism has yet to recover from.

But she forgot to mention that part......

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SOLARLIFE

at 05:34 on January 20th, 2009

Fripoulle, interesting point..'Participative Democracy' and 'Citizen's Jurys' to oversee Government action.

Fripouille

at 05:45 on January 20th, 2009

She was actually serious about that idea. Then again we're talking about someone who, when asked how many nuclear subs France has, got the answer wrong by a factor of seven!!!!!

Thanks for commenting Solarlife.

gahooch

at 05:56 on January 20th, 2009

George W. Bush is the socialist who got Obama elected :-)

Fripouille

at 06:11 on January 20th, 2009

Oh! So George is a Socialist? :-P

Omigod, that's the worst news I've heard all day. I just hope and pray he doesn't come to France to retire. French Socialists have more than enough problems as it is without his contribution!!! I mean, I may be critical of the Socialists' current contribution to this country's politics, but I wouldn't inflict GWB on ANYONE!! (Except maybe the French Tax Authorities....)

Thanks for writing, gahooch.....

Uwe Paschen

at 07:53 on January 20th, 2009

She is truly some thing... Hope she is given a post as presidential adviser in Washington and I do not care for what sort of President either. I am almost ashamed that she is from Africa.

Fripouille

at 08:02 on January 20th, 2009

Oh yeah, she's something all right!

She was born in Africa, as you say, in Dakar (now Senegal). Her father was a military officer.

Oh, and I just read in Nouvel Obs that she has compounded an already laughable idiocy by saying that "I INSPIRED OBAMA!!"

A short version of her wonderful words of wisdom can be read here, in english...

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/251494,obama-learned-from-me-segolene-royal-says.html

Jordan Yerman

at 08:37 on January 20th, 2009

Yeah, but did she invent the Internet?

Fripouille

at 08:59 on January 20th, 2009

But of course she invented the internet Jordan!

Didn't you read the interview she gave to Time in 1994, you know the one in which she said she was drinking a coffee in a bar in California many years ago and just happened to hear Gates, who was at the next table with a friend, talking about his ideas for changing IBM's software into something more user-friendly and one day even federating it all across the globe and it all came to her in a flash?

Well anyway;

She fluttered her eyelids, joined the table, and explained the whole thing to him.

She told him he should call it "Explorer".

She also told him that Fripouille would one day prefer Firefox.

She forgot to ask for copyright dues though.

(Jordan, you really should really do more research before writing.......)

Super comment! Thanks!

Amy Judd

at 10:54 on January 20th, 2009

Wow - that's quite a thing to say!!

Fripouille

at 11:05 on January 20th, 2009

She has to be the dumbest and most inelegant politician who ever didn't grace French politics since DeGaulle......

Thanks for commenting Amyjudd

JeffHuang

at 11:01 on January 20th, 2009

Can't believe she is trying to take credit for his presidency. She doesn't even have a case for losing her election.

Fripouille

at 11:09 on January 20th, 2009

Wrong. She didn't lose her election. It's even worse than that.

She lost her electionS PLURAL!!

(She lost the election for the Socialist Party leadership in december too).

Now you know why.

Thanks for stopping by JeffHuang.....

JeffHuang

at 11:16 on January 20th, 2009

haha, that just makes it that much more absurd then.

Fripouille

at 11:37 on January 20th, 2009

You want more absurdity?

Don't tempt me.

Oh, ok, how about when she said during a live TV presidential debate that she would, following the beating up of a policewoman on her way home after her shift that happened two days before, introduce a law that would ensure "The escort of all policewomen to their homes after work by two policemen"?

(She didn't say, however, who would protect the two policemen.....or who would protect the policemen who protect the policemen, or who would...)

Cheap vote-getting tactics?

The thought couldn't be further from my mind...

Fripouille

at 11:15 on January 20th, 2009

Just an update on this story, if I may....

90% of the hundreds of comments I've scanned here in the French press by French people express sentiments of incredulity, anger, ridicule and derision concerning her comments.

Some express shame at being French too.

It's only fair to say that she does not represent France as a whole. The news bulletins have been consecrated, in glowing terms, to his election......

Ségolène must be in hiding right now.

Mind you, she's used to that.........:-)