The worst thing about this whole Le Pen thing is how well the French have responded. When it first happened I wrote a French friend and said "We will now take a two week time out while I make fun of *your* country." But it looks like I'm not going to get the chance. France seems to be responding immediately and massively. The odds are they'll elect Chirac to a position that will be even more ceremonial than its been for the last five years; then they'll elect a parliament that is more to the left than the last one, and with Jospin gone for good; and then they'll change their constitution, so this can't happen again. I wouldn't even be surprised if they went and changed it farther, and started a sixth republic to stop this cohabitation stuff once and for all. Since this last stop gap measure clearly didn't work.
Whereas the American response was to . . . give thanks that we had coup because it proved how deep and good our system of government is. Which we decided after suing each other silly and talking about it on TV.
Michael