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Macron ou Le Pen? A Little Experiment for People Who Can’t Understand Either One
If your French, like mine, is spotty-to-nonexistent, I invite you to take a little test. Listen to the victory speeches that both Macron and Le Pen delivered this very evening. Watch their body language. Look at their eyes. Gauge their energy levels and the sounds of their voices. Ignore what they say — again, if your French is as spotty as mine, that’ll be easy — to respond to each at the most basic human level: Who makes you feel more alive? Who looks more like a leader?
My answer? Easy. Le Pen–by a lot. I’d been assuming until now that all the polls showing Le Pen would lose the second and final round of voting, which will take place early next month, have been correct. Now I’m not so sure. Le Pen, it seems to me, simply connects.
Le Pen–that’s my answer. Yours?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkQXXfs5_Lo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkGfVEIXK0Q
Published in General
Le Pen, easily.
So far, Mike, it’s unanimous.
Great minds thinking alike, as usual.
Any friend of Putin is our friend as well.
Le Pen here too.
Very funny.
France has never had a female president, and she really does sound impressive. I don’t know if this is indicative of anything, but Macron’s wife, who was once his teacher, is 24 years older than he.
I don’t like this test – I took it and watched both for 1 minute so I guess I get an F. I don’t mean to be so blunt or ugly, but Hitler and Mussolini connected with the people. I would be more interested in what they said. If Le Pen is alt-right (compared to the others maybe that definition is different than here in US), is that what the French want?
Oohlala!
My french is modest, and I caught about 80% of what I watched. I think you’re right, Peter, purely from the perspective of an outsider. And I suspect many of the French now think of themselves as outsiders, at least politically. The last polls I saw that looked at the Macron-Le Pen head-to-head contest had a comfortable lead for Macron, but nothing is certain in the current media environment.
My french in-laws haven’t weighed in, at least not for me to hear, so I can’t offer any of their insight. I suspect they’re still in shock from Trump’s victory, and don’t really want to talk politics with me right now. /-:
Gotta love a mai-décembre romance. ?
When we reach a point where Le pen is the preferred candidate you know things are really bad….the communist got essentially the same vote as the top 2….Macron is Obama’s candidate and that tells you all you need to know…..but Le Pen,good god
Le pen is mightier than the head bobbing Marcon. He acts like someone up past his bed time.
The sign language guy translating Marcon is more impressive than Marcon and the tie shirt combination is not doing him any favors. The pursed lip expression gives a “I’m just happy to be here along with my antiperspirant” that doesn’t make one relish his presence during a terrorist attack (a real one, not a Three Days of the Condor style false flag attack).
I was wondering why Le Pen didn’t have a sign language person. That would be a check mark against her over here.
Peter,
The dynamic when just the two are on stage may be telling. She is a bit like Trump in that I have noticed she is a counter puncher. When interviewed by an obnoxious BBC person each time the interviewer tried to step on Marine she came back much stronger addressing the interviewer more directly and making it clear she would not be pushed but in fact, would push back. If that were to come through on stage with Macron then things might get very interesting. Of course, the entire French media socialist cabal will be against her. I think there may be the possibility of a female backlash for her. We shall see.
Regards,
Jim
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4XMHRp8Qrg
Man, that was much more horrible then I thought it would be. Macron reminds me a lot of Marco Rubio; lots of hype and excitement, over someone who at the end of the day is just too young and inexperienced to be a credible candidate.
[edit: that said, I think either one can win. They both have fatal flaws as candidates]
That would be like Trump being married to someone born in 1922 such as Betty White or Doris Day.
10th largest economy in the world and neither party owns a teleprompter?
Ah, but I’m not asking anyone to support Macron or Le Pen, just to see who looks more compelling. You’re quite right that Hitler and Mussolini would have scored high here, but that only shows that the test has some value: Politicians who can indeed connect tend to do well in elections.
LePen’s delivery is decidedly more compelling.
Of course some of history’s biggest monsters were possessed of the most impressive oratory. I remember in college I took a class on leadership and our guest lecturer was the eminent Professor Harry Jaffa. He walked up to the podium and said: Leadership. Well, the only thing you need to know about leadership is – the greatest leaders of the 20th century were Hitler, Stalin and Mao, that’s all you need to know about leadership.
That one introduction told me more about politics and leadership than 4 years at Claremont and all the years since.
Be careful what you wish for.
I’m going on record as liking this only because DS9 is amazing, Benjamin Sisko is the best and it makes me love WC all the more.
Clearly she’s a better orator, but the important question is, how do the French tell if they have a cold? I find it very distasteful to listen to that language.
Back to the topic. He acts like a little boy. His presence is not as arrogant and confident as Obama, so I don’t see the comparisons. I have no idea what their positions are, I’m assuming as French politicians they are both extreme socialists and central planners, even more so than the Bushes, and probably even harder communists than Hillary and Obama combined.
I agree: LePen. I did understand what they were saying, and that clinched it. His first words were about social justice and ecological urgency, and hers were about French unity, security, and culture.
Is it true that Macron’s nickname is Le Sabre?
Happy to translate if anyone would like, but having heard nothing but their voices for days on end (and looking forward to several weeks more of it), they both sound like a buzz-saw to me. So today I’m taking the day off to see if this is true. I know everyone on Ricochet will be dying to know. I will report.
What a horrifying thought! Charisma in political evil does not negate their essence – World history is replete with those. I wish I could remain cool and composed about the matter, but as Jew, I really can’t. How terrifyingly ironic is that anti-Semitic NF leader is determined to be in the run-off on Yom Shoah!
I would have expected prominent American conservatives to have more scruples and exercise more caution about rising nationalistic sentiment in Europe. It is fraught with land mines that “#Never Clintonians” tend to ignore – I am sure, out of some sort of idealism. But being uniformed does not absolve one from responsibility of studying the matter.
Ricochet Clara Berlinski outstanding post says it all.