Royal Bravitude

Although the French Presidential campaigns don't formally start until April, they're already in full swing. For reasons beyond my understanding, my favourite of the bunch, Parti Socialiste candidate Ségolène Royal, is campaigning in a region you normally wouldn't consider part of the French electorate: China. During her stay in China she managed to invent a new word, much to the amusement of newspaper Le Monde. Speaking of the Great Wall of China, she stated:

Comme le disent les Chinois, qui n'est pas venu sur la Grande muraille n'est pas un brave. Qui va sur la Grande muraille conquiert la bravitude.

Which roughly translates into "As the Chinese say, [he] who did't come on the Great Wall is not a brave [man]. [He] who walks on the great wall conquers bravitude." The new word in question, if you haven't guessed already, is "bravitude," which would make both George W. Bush and Stephen Colbert proud. Royal might actually have meant bravoure, "bravery." Though, Ségo's campaign staff is now claiming she actually intended to invent a new word, with the supposed definition "fullness of bravery." Sheesh.
It's bad enough she's canoodling with the Chinese Communist party, now she's re-inventing the French language?! I'm not an expert in French by any means, but I'm rather sure there's some sort of body that regulates the French language...oh yeah, L'Académie française.
Well, linguistic issues aside, she remains my fave, as she does have a rather redeeming quality: she's not Nicolas Sarkozy.

A Royal Presidency?

According to this article in The Independent, the current frontrunner for next year's French presidential elections is Ségolène Royal of the French Socialist Party (PS), who, if elected, would be France's first woman president. The article goes on to cite a poll in which Royal would defeat the main right-wing contender, Minister of the Interior and Douchebag-at-large Nicolas Sarkozy (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) 55% - 42%.
It remains to be seen if the French left can get its act together, however. 2002's elections was a rather embarrassing affair, with extremist right-wing bigot Jean-Marie Le Pen inching out then Prime Minister Lionel Jospin (PS) to move on to the second round. Royal hasn't formally announced her candidacy yet, and PS won't pick a candidate until November (ironically enough, one of the other possible PS nominees is François Hollande, Royal's spouse), but barring any unforeseen circumstances, she'll very likely be PS's nominee. On the issues she seem alright, if a bit "third way". She's previously been rather conservative on issues relating to homosexuality, but recently promised to introduce a bill legalizing same-sex marriage and adoption, should her party form the next government.
The main criticisms against her seem to be a lack of experience in foreign policy. But what's the worse that could happen when you elect a president with little or no foreign policy experience? Oh...
Seriously, though, after twelve years of this guy, France could use a woman's touch.