Well, between Royal and Sarkozy in the second round, I'd vote for her, too, but that's not the question I'm asking here. The question is where she has and is taking the SP and the country through her political campaign, which is itself part of political education.
In the absence of a strong challenge from the anti-liberal Left (imho, the anti-liberal left should have run José Bové as their unity candidate, but their sectarianism prevented them), Royal sought to distance herself and her campaign from the Left (even the SP itself), her youth and immigration policies being important signals sent to center-right voters that she is not beholden to the Left ("very conservative" elements are not "weird" if you see them in this context). And when she tried to take a left tack with her economic promises of the presidential pact, her economic advisor, who evidently couldn't stomach inconsistency, quit acrimoniously.*
Royal may yet make a comeback, but, even if she wins, her campaign will not have helped to move French electoral politics (which is surprisingly conservative relative to the rates of participation in and approval of workers and students' strikes, demos, etc.) to left, more in line with French politics of streets.
<http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2274478.ece> Royal row: Ségolène aide quits campaign over 'zig-zag' policies By John Lichfield in Paris Published: 16 February 2007
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Although he [Eric Besson] refused to comment publicly, friends said he had been exasperated by Mme Royal's failure to establish clear lines of strategy and communication within her campaign.
She, and some of her advisers, thought that it was tactically more astute to avoid debate on the cost of her promises, including extra spending on job creation, schools, research and housing. Others, including M. Besson, thought they had authority to price her plans at €35bn (£24bn).
It was illogical, M. Besson argued, for Mme Royal to stress the burden of France's national debt in her speech, and then not face up to the cost of her own programme and how it was to be funded. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>