If French Elections Were Held Today, the Far Right's Marine Le Pen Would Win the First Round

Or, as Instapundit would put it, I don't want to hear another goddamn word about far-right or fascist Americans who need to be taught lessons on tolerance and understanding by wise and benevolent Europeans…

We've all heard how far-rightist, how fascist, how racist, how clueless, how fearful, and how intolerant citizens of the American heartland are. And how much they should shut up and let Europeans (such as the French) — along with their like-minded leftist Americans in academe, among the élite, and on the East Coast — teach them lessons on tolerance, civility, and the appreciation of diversity.

In that perspective, it turns out to be a rather — ahem — interesting development that if the first round of next year's French presidential election were held today, according to a Le Parisien poll, the front-runner would be the Front National's Marine Le Pen, polling ahead (23%) of President Nicolas Sarkozy as well as of the Socialists' current front-runner, Martine Aubry (21% each).

That would be even more impressive than 2002, when the National Front's candidate then (Marine's father) also make it to the first round, slaughtering the socialists' Lionel Jospin (than the country's prime minister) in the process, although Jean-Marie Le Pen was not the front-runner, as he came in second to Jacques Chirac (the country's president who would go on to win the second round)…