By Becky Bratu
msnbc.com
While American presidential campaigns seem to last for years, the French campaign only lasts a few months from start to finish.
The differences between the two systems are significant. In France, candidates’ personal lives are not scrutinized to the degree that U.S. presidential hopefuls’ are and their time on radio or television is very closely monitored by a government agency. Ten staffers record and count every single minute that any one of the 10 presidential candidates is on air to ensure that every candidate receives equal time.
In France, there are no political television commercials. The only mass exposure for candidates is on network news and public affairs programs.
“In the morning, for example, which is our primetime, the biggest candidates will be more exposed,” Radio France Inter news director Jacques Monin told Rock Center Special Correspondent Ted Koppel in an interview scheduled to air Wednesday night on Rock Center.
“But we have to give this equal access to the candidates. So, we can find, we have to find other times, which can be in the afternoon, in the evening, in the night as well.”
Between April 9 and April 22, however, as the first round approaches, inspectors count not only the number of minutes, but the placement of an appearance during the broadcast day, which has to be the same for all 10 candidates.
”It is therefore very hard to strike the right balance,” Christine Kelly, the director of the agency in charge of counting, told Koppel. “The media therefore do unfortunately cancel a certain number of political broadcasts.”
REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer
Official campaign posters for French President and UMP political party candidate Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande, for the 2012 French presidential election, are displayed on a wall in Paris April 16, 2012.
With less than a week until France casts its votes in the first round, three opinion polls showed President Nicolas Sarkozy’s narrow lead over his chief rival, Socialist Francois Hollande, is steady or shrinking, and the incumbent is still expected to lose the subsequent May 6 runoff.
"He’s been trailing Hollande in the second round pretty consistently," Justin Vaïsse, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told msnbc.com. "It’s hard to see where the reservoir of votes would come from to make him win."
While Sarkozy, a conservative, is seen as unpopular, Hollande – who was once nicknamed Mr. Jell-O by Socialist leader Arnaud Montebourg -- owes his candidacy to former International Monetary Fund Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He was the favorite to lead the Socialists to victory in France until a 32-year-old maid at a New York hotel alleged that he had sexually assaulted her after she entered his suite. More recently, Strauss-Kahn has been under investigation for his involvement in an organized prostitution ring.
Even in a sexually tolerant country such as France, that was too much.
“It was extreme. It was perceived as sickness,” French political scientist Dominique Moisi told Koppel.
Hollande’s private life, however, has not come under fire. The man who might become France's next president is living with a journalist he is not married to. He also had a relationship spanning decades with 2007 Socialist candidate Segolene Royal, with whom he had four children out of wedlock.
Another notable difference between the United States and France is voter turnout. In France, where an estimated 70 percent of eligible voters will take part in the election, the electorate is considered apathetic. A 60 percent turnout in the United States, however, is perceived as high.
Can the 'Toulouse effect' save Sarkozy from defeat in France?
While Sarkozy and Hollande are stealing most of the spotlight in the media, polls indicated far-right National Front candidate Marine Le Pen had strengthened her position in third place, ahead of hard left candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon in fourth.
“For me, the National Front is rebel. It’s punk,” a supporter who calls himself Archibold and produces political Web videos aimed at young people, told Koppel. “We’re not mainstream at all.” Archibold said he chooses to remain anonymous because some employers would not approve of far-right allegiances.
Meanwhile, Sarkozy’s campaign is relying on some techniques borrowed from across the Atlantic, such as frequent appearances by the current president’s glamorous wife Carla Bruni and American-style political rallies.
Thanks to U.S.-educated campaign directors, the Hollande campaign is getting the American treatment, too.
“We’ve been advocating for, you know, more America in the French election for two years,” Guillaume, one of Hollande’s campaign directors, told Koppel. “We’ve been pushing this, you know, ‘let’s do what Obama did’ for two years.”
As part of that new approach, Hollande’s campaign is also launching a door-to-door campaign. The approach appears to be working.
Sarkozy saw his lead for the first ballot slip to half a percentage point from two points about a week ago in a poll by Ipsos Logica, with 29 percent support to Hollande's 28.5 percent.
The same poll showed Hollande retaining a 10-point lead in voting intentions for the May 6 runoff with 55 percent to Sarkozy's 45 percent, unchanged from a week earlier.
While the race for re-election is an uphill battle for Sarkozy, there remains a small possibility he can scrape his way to a second term in office if he wins in the first round and picks up some support from the centrist candidate's electorate, Vaïsse said.
"Frankly, apart from that scenario, it’s hard to see how he’ll be able to make it," he added.
Editor’s note: Click here to watch Ted Koppel’s full report that aired April 18 on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams. Reuters contributed to this report.
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Now...wouldn't that be a "dream come true"?!!
For all the bashing we do of the French, I think they finally have a leg up on us.
It's the same in Canada. Short and sweet.
I mean if you can't state your position in 90 days max, you expect us to believe you can run the country?
Can we? Can we? Pleasepleasepleaseplease!!!!!
There was an article in Time recently, about how the elections 'help the economy.' The amount of money wasted on elections is staggering.
It's too long to list the problem with the French System but it boils down to the fact that all the Candidates must go to one certain school. A President Obama would have never happened in France and will never happen in France.
A better illustration would be to imagine that all of today's President's and future Presidents having to attend one school with a class size of around 250 people. The only way a child get's in is by having a reputable history of past prestigious people in your family or by paying your way in if you don't have enough prestigious people in your family.
Every American Boy or Girl can at least have that dream of being the President of the United States. In France you don't even get a chance to dream. If you go to this school then you'll have a high position in the Government guaranteed. If you don't you never will nor will your children.
JB, I would rather have a system that delivers a highly educated president that has been bred through a school that delivers only the best, than have a President Palin. Our system allows the dumbest a chance at a job that should only be given to the best and the brightest. Any moron can and should dream of becoming president... that doesn't mean they ever should be elected..... :)
Wow,, that would mean certain members of a certain group, like the man Mr. Adleson could not rig elections through his superpac finance... Amazing that Americans never noticed him funding Gingrich with millions per week while funding Romney with millions per week at the same time in Dec. Jan. and Feb... If Americans would of noticed they may have asked, What does this guy want? He has a history of being the man who would always escort Mr. Bush to meet with powerful leaders of Israel.
I would suggest that Israel wants a leader who will make more war.
Peace seeking Americans that are sick of funding loosing wars need to keep Romney and Gingrich away from even getting close to being the nominee.
Ron Paul has finaly been acknowledged as being in 2nd place in the delegates by MSM.
MSM has claimed Romney to have 500 delegates so common sense begs to ask where are the other 1700 plus delegates?
With all the absurd amounts funding spent why hasn't Romney closed the deal? This thing is far from over and Ron Paul has ALLOT more delegates than MSM is admitting. Again.. Why? Look at his rallies.. 8500 people packing the stands for a primary!! BTW, No media coverage.. hmmm????... So, Just imagine.. with this trend they will need football arenas by the time the general election gets here.
They are the statas quoe.. If you want real change its going to mean supporting the man who challenges the status quoe. Cast the real vote.. Delegate 4 RON PAUL 2012
@ Bob - You won't think that when the rag heads in that country take over, due to breeding like rabbits and turn the Eiffel tower into a Mosque.
"A President Obama would have never happened in France and will never happen in France"
"Every American Boy or Girl can at least have that dream of being the President of the United States."
Yeah right, president Obama is just your average black person with the average black background... From :
"Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004."
He lived with his maternal grandparents, the Dunhams, from the age of ten to the age of 19 ( ):
"The Dunhams then moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, where Stanley found a better furniture store opportunity, and Madelyn started working at the Bank of Hawaii in 1960 and was promoted to be one of the first female bank vice presidents in 1970."
Truth is that this is not true: "Every American Boy or Girl can at least have that dream of being the President of the United States." Because every American boy or girl won't have the chance to grow up in the relatively privileged conditions that each American president has grown up in. So serious changes are needed in both France and the US - representative democracy is in crisis both places.
The two links that are missing:
look up Obama at Wikipedia
and
then Madelyn Dunham
By the way, he lived with his grandparents between 1971 to 1979, so from the age of ten to the age of 18 and not 19 as I said.
Ho advertisements are required in any election camapign, unless it is of the insufferable US model where the deepest pockets win. They are not allowed on TV in the UK, and in most democratic countries, which the US appears not to be.
Why should the man who shouts loudest win? Pray
Charles, I thought that style of advertisement was used to reach federal agents in the US. You may need to do some studying.
I've wished for many years that we could somehow outlaw political ads on TV. They do nothing to educate the public, they only show who can shout the loudest.
and who can throw mud the hardest.
I couldn't agree more. Political advertising in this country should be a thing of the past. It is only used to distort and mislead the easily mislead in this country with no accountability whatsoever.
Getting rid of political advertising is fought hard by the networks and those who profit from the hundreds of millions of dollars that are spent each cycle. The public are the ones who lose. Stop political advertising and lobbying and we are on our way back to a country that is accountable to its citizens instead of corporations.
Wow.. Well said.. That means voting for the man who has kept his door shut to any lobby for the last 40 years even though no one seemed to care... Ron Paul 2012 The man who acts like public office is a sacred service to his countrymen and nothing else!!
I agree with all that has been said so far. The American election system is a joke in it's current state. Not only does each candidate have their own commercials, but now we have all of these Super Packs that run their ads as well. This is complete proof that the American elections are based on a pocket book and not who is the best candidate.
All Presidential candidates should be required to use the funds in the electoral campaign fund and no other sources. Get your butt out there and meet your constituents, and $5000 a plate diners is not it!!!!
Partially agree. I'd rather see a system whereby all candidates get X dollars to spend. No donations. Limited advertising. Get sufficient local signatures to get put on a local ballot, get X dollars. Get through the next round, get X more dollars. etc. Probably be a little tough to manage however but at least it would mean that ANYONE could truly run for office instead of just the wealthy.
And totally agree with having to get out there and meet constituents. Too many states don't even figure in the campaign trail these days as the electoral system just doesn't make it worthwhile for them to worry about some states. Make it a law that EACH states splits its electoral votes according to votes cast for each candidate and you would see much better and wider campaigning.
Makes you wanta move to France...
if you're a communist.......
Like who isn't?
Shows at least over there its harder to do what Romney is trying to do right now in buying the Presidency. Him and his "stay at home multi-millionaire wife" who raised 5 kids with the help of a lot of high paid staff that did everything for her.
And just how much did President Obama buy the 2008 election for? About $750 million, yet his staff still complains about Bush, he got what he BOUGHT! Remember the ng BUYER BEWARE!
Our elected officials spend more time running for re-eletion, fund raising and helping others run for election that doing the job they are supposed to be doing. The question is how do you get the people prospering from this system to change it?
The system will only change when/if it collapses. Who knows what rises out of the ashes. I think its too far gone now to be fixed. The corruption is peaking it would seem (look at the GSA/prostitutes/etc)...
It hard to do much of anything after the supreme court declared corporate $ is more valuable than the votes of its citizens. Anything short of a revolution would not be able to fix this corrupt system.
Yep...history shows there is no way out except to force them out whatever that form takes.
Limit election campaigns to the weekdays between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM, limit contributions from any one source to a maximum of $100, no matching government funds, no TV advertising and disallow FOREIGN campaign funds altogether. After the election, candidates must return unused campaign funds to the contributor OR PAY TAX on them. (Of course, there'd be NO unused funds.)
We the people of the USA have allowed our elected representatives on all levels of gov't to legalize their own corruption. Bribery is campaign funds and perfectly legal. We have the best gov't that money can buy and we deserve every bit of it. Silence is acceptance.
America is in thrall to big money. I echo the question of jcpines. How can we stop it with a corrupt "Supreme" Court?
Not just France -- both United Kingdom and Canada have time limits on campaigns. Campaign finance reform would help, but the only people who can change the system are those in Congress who simultaneously whine about the constant need to raise campaign funds and refuse to consider change. Who was it said that the definition on insanity is to repeat the same action over and over and expect a different result??
American conservatives and the supreme court could not just sit by and let voters determine an election. This is America where EVERY THING is bought by the highest bidder!
This is exactly what we need!!! No TV ads, two debates where the cadnidates feet are held to the fire over every lie they've ever told. I am sick to death of the media letting these GOP con men tell one lie after another without anyone calling them on it.
Reducing the entire election down to a matter of months with no campaign ads would remove most of the money from at least this part of the political process, the person with the best plan who tells the least lies wins.
"GOP con men" you didn't really? It's folks exactly like you the keep thee thieves in office. They're ALL "con men" friend. As a matter of fact they're ALL crooks, thieves, and liars to the last man and women BOTH sides of the aisle. Until the brainwashed masses pull their heads out of the dark, warn tunnel and realize that just because your chosen crook isn't currently stealing from you, that doesn't make him or her honest, it just means they gotten around to YOU yet, but the will.
" they only show who can shout the loudest" - or lie the best.
What a refreshing concept
Sounds great to me!
France is ahead of the U.S. in so many areas. Politics, transportation, infrastructure, education, public health,and importantly, quality of life. The U.S. is so intent on not spending a dime on anything public and as a result, we have a nation with deteriorating cities, roads and bridges, and poor elementary and secondary education. Our politicians fight endlessly not for their constituents, but for the right to be in office and to spend their time pontificating on TV almost from the moment they're elected. U.S. citizens are under a constant barrage of political campaigning and posturing while little, if anything, gets done by those elected to work on and solve at least some of the major issues facing the country. Limiting campaigns to two weeks would be all we would need to decide who has the public's best interests at heart and who holds the interests of their favorite PAC above all else.
Almost all of Europe is doing better with life than we are! They've got transportation down, their security is better, you can walk on the street at night, and everything they make is built to last, not built to be cheap. I wish for the U.S. to do better, because we certainly have the resources and abilities!
But not the desire---we only worship the Profit God.
For the first time I'm jealous of France! What's pathetic about these misleading ads:
1. actually work (I mean really, how stupid are people?!?!)
2. Have never actually been called out for false advertising (though I guess most advertising these days are false)
What a joke we have for an election process, no wonder we end up with jokers in charge!
the united states has the best goverment, money can buy !
I will say this once and I may never say this again but the French are doing exactly what needs to be done.
I want one! A campaign just like this!!! Why the hell Americans have to be subjected to 2 years or so of the 'buy-a-political-office dogfight about everything but the issues' campaigns every 4 years is insane and disgusting. I don't even listen, in self-defense.
I wish for this, but our TV stations and networks depend on this income. Too Bad!!!!!!!
Then blow up your tv.
I could live with no political commercials at all. All politicians ARE crooks, thieves, and liars to the last man and woman BOTH sides of the aisle so it follows that everything that come out of their mouthes are lies anyway so there's really no point in listening to them 1000 times.
De Merl you are so wrong, France have been grooming its politicians and presidents from the start. Ecole Normale d'Administration is "manufacturing" arrogant and useless politicians "the Elite" goes from graduation to political parties and depending on "availability" they go right or left.
I've been a regular visitor to the USA for more than 40 years and I can tell you how far is France from the USA in all fields, the country is in the hands of rotted professional politicians; France once a wealthy country is now going down the drain. The state of the country roads, schools, hospitals is so bad no candidate dare to talk about it.