When confronted with the prospect of a populist conservative ultra-liberal security freak having severe chances of winning (for being very popular), a man who will wreck France, you know that taking whatever socialist elephant out of the closet, dusting his headmaster clothes (including the sweater with leather patches under the elbows), and presenting him as France's future, is just not going to work.

You need someone who appears fresh, and more centrist & conservative than the average leftie, because you know that come what may nearly all lefties will give their votes to the Left in the 2nd round ... but that this still won't be enough to make you win in a country that's regularly shown as being 55% right vs 45% left. You know that what you need is to seduce the centrists, and why not also some women on the right, in order to tip the Le Pen & Sarko confrontation in your favour, in the 2nd round.

So you present Royal, and it's a smart move. You get the media's help, and there you are: you have someone Sarko can have nightmares about.