France 2012: the official thread

[The Mikado]

The idea that people are too rational to do stupid stuff when running for office has never been correct. Look at John Edwards, Tiger Woods, Richard Nixon and so on and so forth.

But I suppose it might be French customs not really mixing with American.

As deplorable as John Edwards is, he never raped anyone.  I mean, as Chris Rock once said, rape is number 2 on the scale of bad things.  There's murder, then there's rape.  This isn't a standard scandal at all...outside of Moshe Katsav, I can't name a prominent politician this past decade brought up on rape charges (one of you will prove me wrong).

[The Mikado]

Thank you Fab, I'm glad to see we are in agreement there.

You're welcome.
I respect men and women, whatever their opinions (though I have some exceptions, like Panzergirl and though I must acknowledge it's difficult for me to have great consideration for Besancenot, Bayrou, Hamon and Villepin ).

What I feel very badly is the media and Internet curée... It's just disgusting.
And even if it's true, why not wait for some sounder pieces of facts ?

I'm surprised that the first comments are only in 2 categories:
- DSK is sexually obsessed (Panzergirl, Bernard Debré, the Internet mob)
- it's a conspiracy (Boutin, Le Guen, some socialists rank-and-file).
Why not consider an attempt by one person to have some celebrity ?
This is what I think most likely (though not certain at all, don't make me say what I haven't said).

No one in New York knows who DSK is well enough to think that accusing him of rape would get them celebrity.

It seems that medias from all over the world, including the US, have big titles on this.

Doesn't mean anyone knew who he was beforehand--certainly not anyone who isn't involved in international law/finance/journalism (like a hotel worker). It's just a juicy story. Also, had he been arrested in, say, Moscow, the American media would barely care at all.

Aren't hotels inclined to tell their staff if their guest is a bigshot, to make sure they get the best service possible?  "The Head of the International Monetary Fund, likely to be the next President of France, is in room XYZ."

[The Mikado]

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I don't think that saying is condoning rape; it's just describing how social interaction generally works.

Well, the fact that that saying is usually attributed to legendary misogynist Bismarck might hint that it does.

[The Mikado]

Just a favor I'd like to ask: does anyone have a link to official (i. e. citation-worthy) French election returns?  Something like this site, but for France?

I could probably find it on my own, but I figure this is probably the sort of thing that Hashemite has bookmarked and it'd probably be easier this way.