Just to give a slightly different angle on the IHT's take above, when they speak of her defence of the "traditional family" and her opposition to pornography: these may have gained her sympathy on the right, but, since she is not married to Hollande (though they have four children), she is hardly a traditional family-values icon. Her opposition to pornography also comes less from a traditionalist or religious point of view as from a feminist one.

Something she manages to do well is have principles that are not exactly fashionable these days (a bourgeois couple with 4 kids living in union libre is a rare phenomenon), yet get herself across as someone who is acceptable to all. She makes herself and her principles respected, and she appears as someone clearcut, with a good mind and her heart in the right (left?) place. She doesn't strike me as someone who'd fade under the pressure of a very big election. And the male idiots who try to patronize her do so at their own peril.

OK, you've got my drift: Vive Ségolène!