But am I right to think of him as kind of a notorious self-promoter?

But of course, he's a French Presidential hopeful.

Those whom the Gods wish to destroy They first make mad. -- Euripides

He was slandered in the Elf row. He was totally cleared on this. I'm not sure what you mean about the France Telecom row. As to the 35-hour week, he did fight Aubry on it, then representing the more centrist wing of the party, but I would not be able to give you details of what he fought about exactly. The Aubry/Strauss-Kahn dynamic with Jospin in the middle was actually a good way to govern with both wings of the party heard and placated. You also had the communists and the Greens in the game.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

As to self-promotion, friends in the party seem to tell me he's not doing enough. Like Jospin, he was hoping that people would come to him to ask him to run, and he's been outclassed by Royal's fearless dash for it.

But he is well respected - and a lot of centrists could vote for him (people that could otherwise vote for Bayrou)

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

DSK is not a notorious self-promoter, (or I must have missed something). In any case, of the three here, he's the least self-promoting...

He's a social democrat with strong associations with policy, efficiency, competence, intellectual capacity, responsibility. He's the closest to Jospin of the three candidates. His choices are sometimes centre-right on economic and business issues.

If he became president, he'd stand a good chance of federating centre-right to centre-left support and of governing France in a stable, efficient way (wouldn't that make a change after Chirac!) He would also be a heavyweight in European politics (and wouldn't that make a change etc!)

Of the three, DSK is the most dependable candidate, meaning that we could be fairly sure in advance what his policies and politics would be.