More on Sarkozy

I apologize for the spelling mistake in the below post. It should be "banlieues" rather than "banlieux," and at one point I had had that hammered into me.

Second failure: I labelled Sarkozy an Enarque (and a hypocrite), as had many of many apparently ill-informed French friends. According to Wikipedia, Sarokozy muddled through and finally dropped out of a Sciences-Politique program at Paris X-Nanterre. I think this dropping out, actually, a good call on Sarkozy's part, as Paris-X is one of the grimmest places I've ever been, and even a good degree from there is hardly a means to anything.

So how exactly did Sarkozy get from Nanterre to Neuilly, which is perhaps the poshest suburb/village I've ever seen in the Paris area? (It's like an 18th-c designed version of Palo Alto or Brooklyn Heights, except that there are only a very few colored people slipping through the cracks in Neuilly.) The sad fact is that even to get into a minor governmental role in France you need mad connections. Maybe the UMp sponsored him after his glorious speech as a fiery young Gaulliste. Maybe his father's respected name granted him piston. Maybe, after all, this is an American achievement sort of story.

I'll be keeping a closer eye on the French news after this, you can be sure.