Sarkozy at risk among the French, those through-and-through "good people who want peace"

If there was a single subtext unifying the political establishment during the early days of flame and street battling here, it was the idea that the riots could become the black mark of death on Sarkozy's presidential ambitions in 2007

writes John Vinocur, as he discusses the French as "all good people who want peace". Elsewhere, he wrote about

France's great political mano a mano, Nicolas Sarkozy vs. Dominique de Villepin for the presidency in spring 2007, has a core of fascination: the energy, ruthlessness, and ambition of two men who have to pretend, in an excruciating public charade, to be teammates for months to come.