Sarko is an excellent candidate who will good for France and good for the US.
It is not just that he is not a Socialist, like Royal, but that he is smart, capable, experienced, and has a spine of steel. He has shown throughout his career that he supports individual initiative, the work ethic, pay according to merit, lower taxes, and a strong relationship with the US.
At great political risk to himself, he met with, and was photographed with President Bush and Condi Rice. (see above photos taken September 2006) He was sending a strong signal that the anti-Americanism endorsed by the Chirac government was going to end.
I don’t think Sarko is a socialist, but he knows it is pointless to even try to undo the French socialist model that is currently in place, he simply wouldn’t have the mandate.
Even Ronald Reagan understood that “entitlements are forever.”