an unprecedented TV debate....

[wesw]

...or so it is being billed on C-Span....

wow!

la pen vs macron...

I m watching it now on c-span 3.....

most amazing debate I ve ever seen...

if we could steal question time from Britain and this type of debate from France....

...we might just be a better democracy.

I don t know who is winning but it is one helluva debate.

I missed the first 40 minutes or so but ive caught the last hour and it shows no sign of letting up yet.

must see TV.

[Lord Jim]

Looks like it's Score One for the Western Alliance supporting novice, versus the anti-NATO authoritarian Putinista:

French election: Macron 'most convincing' in final debate

French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron was more impressive than rival Marine Le Pen in Wednesday evening's final TV debate, a viewers' poll says.

The candidates traded insults for more than two hours, arguing over terrorism, the economy, and Europe.

The French broadcaster BFMTV found voters had a more favourable view of Mr Macron than Ms Le Pen in most categories.

He was the "most convincing" of the pair in the opinion of 63% of viewers.

Ms Le Pen lambasted her rival for his finance and government background, accusing him of being "the candidate of savage globalisation" and said his version of France "is a trading room, where it will be everyone fighting for themselves".

In turn, Mr Macron said the National Front leader had openly lied, proposed nothing, and exaggerated the concerns of the public.[Easy to understand why El Clodillo is such a fan...]

"The high priestess of fear is sitting before me," he said.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39801315

[Lord Jim]

If Comrade Le Penov were running in Russia, she'd be way ahead...

French Election’s Latest Polls Show Marine Le Pen Would Easily Win—if She Was a Candidate in Russia

Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen may still be struggling to win over French voters ahead of Sunday’s presidential-election second round, but there is at least one country where she enjoys overwhelming support—Russia.

Le Pen is viewed favorably by 61 percent of Russians, according to a survey by the state-run All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, released Tuesday. Carried out just ahead of last month’s first round in which 11 candidates were on the ballot, the poll showed only 8 percent support for Emmanuel Macron, who will vie with Le Pen in Sunday’s runoff.

http://www.newsweek.com/le-pen-french-e ... oll-593198

[oldr_n_wsr]

French Election’s Latest Polls Show Marine Le Pen Would Easily Win—if She Was a Candidate in Russia

They come up with some stupid poll like this which has absolutely nothing to do with anything and then they wonder why people don't trust polling, pollsters. whatever

[RayThom]

French Election’s Latest Polls Show Marine Le Pen Would Easily Win—if She Was a Candidate in Russia

Was this a quote from Le Pen herself? I can't read this as anything other than tongue-in-cheek, satire. I doubt it was meant to be taken seriously.

[MajGenl.Meade]

It is both relevant and not at all satire, though it is intended to make us go "aha!" And even smile at the non-irony. From the article:

The election is expected to have far-reaching consequences, with Le Pen stating her intention to withdraw France from the eurozone and, at the very least, renegotiate her nation’s relationship with the European Union. In the manner of other populist candidates across Europe, and along with Donald Trump in the United States, she has criticized sanctions against Russia and called for forging closer ties with Moscow.

That's why she and the Dumpster may be more popular in gangsta-Russia than in any civilized country

[ex-khobar Andy]

I think that the Brexit vote and the repercussions may also have swayed some of those who might otherwise have supported Le Pen. The costs are growing and I have heard GBP 50 billion and up. And that is just what EU will demand and does not include, for example, the huge internal costs of redoing or undoing all those EU regs which are the law of the land. Just the reality of what it would take to leave the EU may have been a reason for some to abandon Le Pen.

[Lord Jim]

They come up with some stupid poll like this which has absolutely nothing to do with anything and then they wonder why people don't trust polling, pollsters. whatever

To add to Meade's point...

I don't find this to be a "stupid" or pointless poll, because of what it measures and the information it provides...

What this poll is measuring, is the extent to which the state controlled media of Putin's Russia supported and propagandized on Le Pen's behalf, and against her opponent...

(Obviously if this had not been going on, there's no good reason for why Le Pen would have had a 61-8 percent favorable rating over Macron among Russians)

When the Number One Enemy of the Western Alliance is strongly supporting and propagandizing in favor of one candidate over another in a contest for the leadership of one of those countries, (As also occurred in our own election) that is very useful information to have...

When the fellow who has characterized the fall of the Soviet Union as "the worst catastrophe of the 20th Century", a fellow who wishes The West nothing but ill, and seeks to sunder the Western Alliance in order to better pursue his territorial designs on his neighbors, puts his propaganda machine into high gear in support of a candidate running for the top office in a major Western nation, that should give the citizens of that country great pause when they consider whether they should support that candidate...

[Burning Petard]

I am only an ignorant provincial American. Can somebody [particularly one from a country with a 'parliamentary' system who has pointed out the inefficiencies of the American system] explain to me what is going on now and why the rational, logical French political system is superior?

France has recently had an election process that went thru several preliminaries and has now selected the President who was officially put in office last week. Now that president is about to announce who is in his cabinet. After that is complete, there will then be another election to select the members of the legislative body.

Imagine how much fun we would be having if, after a month or so of executive orders from Trump we now were to elect the US Senate and Congress.

snailgate.