During the recent American Presidential Primaries and actual campaign, I wrote quite a few times about the dissatisfaction many Americans, Right, Left and Center, had with the establishment candidates. And that is the big reason that Donald Trump is the President of the United States of America. Neither Hillary Clinton and the
getting more Leftist by the second Democratic Party nor the mainstream Republican politicians, most notably the Bush dynasty attracted enough American voters in enough states to win the elections.
The Democrats, who preached their Radical Left New Morality, ended up scaring Middle America straight into the arms of Donald Trump, who, as a top marketing expert should, knew just what to say to appeal to the fears of ordinary Americans.
As I've written many times, politics can be as much fun to observe as sports. It is a sport in a sense. Like in most games, there is only one winner.
As the two candidates enter the final lap, each can reasonably claim a part in changing the face of French politics. Ms Le Pen secured 7.7m votes, 1.3m more than at the first round in 2012, and a big jump from the 4.8m her father got in 2002. When he made it into the run-off, he scored only 18%. That she might well more than double that on May 7th is a reflection of her success in turning the FN into a fixed feature of the French party system. Even if she loses, Ms Le Pen has had an outsized influence over this campaign.
As for Mr Macron, he has already pulled off a historic feat. Last summer, he was a rank outsider, whose hopes of running defied all French rules about the way presidential candidacies are slow-cooked over the years. Now, the man with a dream, a gamble and a heavy dose of luck appears well placed to become the youngest-ever president of France’s Fifth Republic. After that, the hard part begins. The Economist
In another week France is having run-off Presidential Elections between two non-mainstream candidates, Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron. Macron, like Trump, has never held elected office though he was appointed Minister of the Economy in 2014. Marine Le Pen has revamped her father's extreme Right party and may actually pull off a victory.
For the moment, surveys predict that Macron will win with a bit less than 60%, but Le Pen has been constantly rising in polls in recent days. Jerusalem Post
As "brand loyalty" is becoming a thing of the past in marketing, the same phenomenon is showing its head in politics. Nowadays, before buying a refrigerator or plane tickets, people check their options online and choose by price and servicing, rather than getting the latest model of their old fridge or sticking with "frequent flyer" options. That's why simple marketing and voicing the needs and worries of the voter is the modern way to win an election.
