Wampum

I was working on a post this morning on the first round of the Partie Socialiste balloting for the '07 presidential race when we lost power. I was rhetorically crossing my fingers that the best candidate wouldn't be wiped out in the first round. It didn't even occur to me that the worst candidate would get more than 50% of the vote, eliminating a runoff between the partisans of the worst, and the partisans of the best and the second best. It was worse than I anticipated. Over 60% of the PS voted for a break with the left and for triangulating toward the program of the right.

I was disapointed earlier when the better ecologist lost, albeit in a deadlock that took weeks to resolve into a one vote margin for the lesser ecologist, in Les Verts balloting for the '07 presidential race.

Now that PCF has renounced nuclear power, they remain the last palatable choice for a program that rejects neo-liberalism and running to the center (the program of Ségolène Royal, hence the PS), or the pro-business equivalent of "clean coal" (the program of Dominique Voynet, hence Les Verts), or the program of the right, ironically "green flavored" in the last week with the carbon tax proposal.

I invite from the bottom of my heart men and women and organizations of the left, even those who might have voted "yes", to take your place, to participate with us in this noble adventure to construct another Europe, a genuine left wing alternative.

Marie-George Buffet, '07 cycle candidate for President, PCF

The "yes" vote is a reference to the dividing line in Europe, the neo-liberal draft European Constitution. The PS and Les Verts leaderships, along with the right, voted "yes". Fortunately, the rank and file voted "non" and "non" carried the day. Back then the knives came out for Laurent Fabius as he campaigned against the draft European Constitution, he was told to get out of the PS and go to ... the PCF.