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This appears at first glance to be the worst possible result as a razor thin margin makes legitimacy more difficult.

The question is can Royal take the hint?  Even if this was "shenanigans" she must get in line for the party.  If she cannot do that it is personal and the PS is not a personal vehicle for her but allegedly a major political party.

Sarkozy must be giggling.

by paving on Sat Nov 22nd, 2008 at 04:33:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I think this is over-worrying... we were told that the ongoing primary between Clinton and Obama was "damaging" as McCain was selected and already building momentum. Turned out not to matter so much.

There's plenty of time before the next election. Better to do the recounts, investigate any shenanigans and lay the doubts to rest. Then when Royal loses anyway she (and her supporters) will have less grounds to complain... and eventually will get behind the other candidate...

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sat Nov 22nd, 2008 at 05:42:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm inclined to agree, although there really wasn't much to fight over with Obama and Hillary.  There were questions of the superdelegates following the delegate allocation and finding some way of dealing with Florida and Michigan, but Obama had a pretty commanding lead with the regular delegates and gradually closed the gap throughout the race with superdelegates, so it wasn't really in dispute from a perspective of simply dealing in numbers.

This, in contrast, is rightly described as a razor-thin margin.  At 42 votes, there can be a dispute.  Close enough for accusations of fraud to resonate with the two bases.  It's sort of like comparing Florida 2000 with Ohio 2004: I've little doubt there was fraud in Ohio, but I still think that, if we could've waved a magic wand and made the fraud go away, Bush would've won Ohio.  Florida, on the other hand, was pretty clearly won via fraud, in my opinion.

The fortunate thing is that they have, I think, quite a bit of time before the next election, so the opportunity to heal whatever wounds are left is at least there.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Sat Nov 22nd, 2008 at 09:56:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The problem is, the voting in the PS is way, way dirtier than anything in Florida or Ohio ; in each département, voting is more or less controlled by the local head of party ; there are reports of mass semi-fictitious adhesions just before elections, more or less paid for by the local head to bring more votes to his favored candidate.

Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sat Nov 22nd, 2008 at 10:09:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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