Off to the voting booth!

Watching someone else's presidential election is fun. It's like a grand party where you have no control but also no responsibility either - If everyone has a good time, you can join in, but if someone burns the house down, you can get the hell out too. France has roughly a dozen candidates in the running for president, and today is the day of the first round, where two will be chosen to go on to the final vote. The front runners are Sarkozy, Royal, Bayrou, and Le Pen, whose political positions can be summed up as follows:

Bayrou - "I believe in governmental gridlock, and I like cows"

Le Pen - "France is for French people as long as they're white"

Royal - "I am the Blairite Socialist, no, I am pro-business, no, wait, I hate business, more welfare for the people, more state money! Vote for me, I am pretty"

Sarkozy - "Start working harder, you lazy fuckers, and let's put this country back on the world map again"

For my part, I'm just happy and bemused to watch an entire presidential campaign where no one even mentions religion, family values, abortion, or whether anyone ever smoked pot as a teen. And there's no "Swift Boat" bullshit, either. It's weird. I'd almost call it civilized politics for adults if Royal would stop comparing herself to Joan of Arc (She should maybe think that story through a little further before she uses that comparison again, considering how the story came out...).

On the plus side, if Ségo wins, we'll have the world's prettiest president!