Nancy, Segolene... great day for women? Not so sure. The California democrat and the French socialist triumphed today. It was expected. The first one will be speaker of the House; the second, her party's candidate at the presidential election.
Much was made of the fact that Nancy Pelosi did not get what she had wished for: John Murtha as her main man. The veteran Marine turned politician in the seventies is the most outspoken - if not always articulate - opponent to the way the Bush administration has been conducting the war in Iraq. Her fellow party members preferred the man less likely to annoy them, the unctuous Steny Hoyer.
Segolene Royal, the French socialist motherly figure, beat two old timers to the presidential candidacy: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former Finance minister, and Laurent Fabius, former Prime minister.
In spite of having been a cabinet member herself, and glossing over her long-time involvement in the party's mechanics (and we're not thinking of hubby party president François Hollande), the first female candidate managed to instill the idea that she is a "fresh face". So fresh, in fact, that she should be forgiven the lameness of her program, and her frequent veering into conservative social positions. Could she have been watching Hillary?
Never-the-less, the mood is set for "change" in France as well, with the forecast of a presidential duel opposing the populist and popular interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy to Segolene Royal.
Yet it will be interesting to see how long it takes before the first female candidate is tightly "counseled"... and how long it takes the French left to lament the import of American-style "primaries", a first in France to select a presidential candidate.