Why couldn't the "hardline Socialist activists" find a female candidate -- as attractive as Ségolène Royal but to her Left -- to represent them in the primary?
It seems to me that the Right -- be it within one party as in this case of the French SP; or between parties as in the case of Labour vs. Conservative in the UK, the SDP or the Left Party vs. the CDU in Germany, etc.; or between the socialist bloc and the capitalist bloc (when the former still existed) -- has been on the average better at promoting and rallying behind female leaders. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>