Royally Wrong
Americans have been known to tolerate political family legacies. We have the Kennedys, the Bushes, the Clintons, the Romneys, the Daleys, and so on.
But one thing that Americans do not have the stomach for is blatant, bald-faced nepotism. Of course it goes on, but where it does go on, the people involved in making the arrangements would prefer to keep the spotlight off their dealings. Makes for bad PR and easy fodder for political rivals. That's why, for instance, Bill Clinton never dared to make Hillary Secretary of HHS.
But in France? President-elect Francois Hollande is on course to make his ex...er...domestic partner and mother of his four children, Segolene Royal, the most powerful woman in the country.
And this after Royal publicly trashed Hollande last year as being entirely unqualified to be President.
What strange bedfellows ex-bedfellows make.
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Jun '10
Re: Royally Wrong
Just keep telling yourself: This is France, it makes no sense to Americans.
It still bugs me that my Dad lived for 64 years with a badly disabled right arm from a wound incurred helping free these ungrateful jerks from the Nazis.
Edited on May 11, 2012 at 2:03amJun '10
Re: Royally Wrong
I wonder...does she have three walk-in closets full of shoes?
Mar '11
Re: Royally Wrong
What could go wrong?
Edited on May 11, 2012 at 2:08amMay '10
Re: Royally Wrong
tabula rasa: Just keep telling yourself: This is France, it makes no sense to Americans.
It still bugs me that my Dad lived for 64 years with a badly disabled right arm from a wound incurred helping free these ungrateful jerks from the Nazis. · 10 minutes ago
Edited 6 minutes ago
God bless your Dad.
Jul '10
Re: Royally Wrong
This will not end well. Would the last sane person in France please turn off the lights?
Jun '10
Re: Royally Wrong
Kervinlee
tabula rasa: Just keep telling yourself: This is France, it makes no sense to Americans.
It still bugs me that my Dad lived for 64 years with a badly disabled right arm from a wound incurred helping free these ungrateful jerks from the Nazis. · 10 minutes ago
Edited 6 minutes ago
God bless your Dad. · 15 minutes ago
Thanks. He was a good man. The difference between him and me is that he never once regretted what he'd given nor complained about it. I'm the one who overthinks it.
Apr '11
Re: Royally Wrong
I thought it interesting that she and he regarded marriage as a middle class institution, yet when they "divorced" she felt as betrayed as any wife.
Sep '10
Re: Royally Wrong
Pretty much everything wrong with "The Free-World" (especially western Europe) all in one story.
May '10
Re: Royally Wrong
Then there is the Chicago way where incumbent pols win their primary, then retire, then the party committee picks one of their kids to carry on the dynasty.
Mar '11
Re: Royally Wrong
Maximilien Robespierre, where are you now that France really needs you?
Sep '10
Re: Royally Wrong
Percival
Maximilien Robespierre, where are you now that France really needs you? · 32 minutes ago
You honestly think that there aren't revolutionary forces at work in Europe that won't do the same thing?
The question to me is whether it's the euro-technocrats or the enablers that fall first.
Mar '11
Re: Royally Wrong
Aelreth
Percival
Maximilien Robespierre, where are you now that France really needs you? · 32 minutes ago
You honestly think that there aren't revolutionary forces at work in Europe that won't do the same thing?
The question to me is whether it's the euro-technocrats or the enablers that fall first. · 4 minutes ago
Yeah, and like Robespierre, you wonder if the cure is going to be worse than the disease.
Dec '11
Re: Royally Wrong
Diane Ellis, Ed.
But one thing that Americans do not have the stomach for is blatant, bald-faced nepotism.
See: RFK as Attorney General.
Mar '11
Re: Royally Wrong
If we don't change the attitudes of a great many of our children, future American governments will be as twisted.
Apr '12
Re: Royally Wrong
France has decayed into such a dump. I was shocked by Paris the last time I visited. The nice cheese and wine made one forget.
Aug '10
Re: Royally Wrong
What is french for p- whipped ?This guy trusts his ex ?Sure sign of an unteachable fool .
Jul '11
Re: Royally Wrong
Harry Reid's extended family are all rich through land deals. Very rich.
May '10
Re: Royally Wrong
This is one future for US. Actually, it's not, because France and Europe have only survived this long because we were not them. In France, the government and business are incestual.
I lived there for over two years. You start out (at least in the 1980's and early 1990's) in awe of the Old and Beautiful, and then gradually, you discover what's behind and under the stage set (the state set?), and what isn't. As an American, you assume that certain things are true, but they are not. That's why living in France started me on the road to conservatism.
Rejection of fausse austerité is only the latest disgrace.
I really hope France goes Greece. They deserve it. They've earned a huge plate of moral hazard!
Edited on May 11, 2012 at 6:08amDec '11
Re: Royally Wrong
ParisParamus:
I lived there for over two years. You start out (at least in the 1980's and early 1990's in awe for the Old and Beautiful, and then gradually, you discover what's behind and under the stage set (thestate set?)
I lived in Aix-en-Provence for two semesters; traveled extensively in this once magical country on both a personal and professional basis as an adult. I am a sad tourist today, indeed.
Jul '11
Re: Royally Wrong
They never married because both feel marriage is a " bourgeois institute". Well that just about says it all. How soon until this socialist runs out of other peoples money and turns to the elitist banks, ones he plans on bringing to their knees, for answers that he will not want to hear?