DSK for president - in 2012?

Tuesday's left-of-centre French national daily, Libération, published a poll that apparently makes Dominique Strauss-Kahn the front runner for the Socialist party's nomination for the 2012 presidential race.

It also says that a majority of the French would like to see the selection of the party's candidate in 2012 open up to more than just its 233,000 card carrying members.

All right, so the real race itself might be a long way off, but that hasn't stopped the ever-divided French Socialist party from continued internal bickering ever since its candidate in 2007, Ségolène Royal, lost out to Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round of voting.

But Libération's poll seems to indicate that DSK - as he's usually known here - is in with a shout when he returns from his stint as head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

And indeed the paper goes as far as to suggest that he's the front runner among the French as a whole regardless of party affiliation.

Of those polled, 28 per cent plumped for DSK.

The outcome though was slightly different when those who declared themselves Left of Centre or Socialists were asked their opinion.

Coming out on top with 25 per cent (Left) and 26 per cent (party members) was none other than Royal once again.

The poll, carried out by Viavoice, also looked at how the French felt about the options open to the Socialist party as it seeks to overcome internal divisions that have characterised it since Royal was nominated as its candidate back in 2007 and came to a head when she went up against Martine Aubry for the leadership of the party last November.

It asked whether the party should choose a future nominee by opening up the vote to a wider base by holding "primaries" along the lines of the US presidential selection process, or stick with the current "members only" procedure.

It's something the party's current leadership is reportedly "considering" changing to ensure its nominee has the widest possible appeal.

But hang on a moment.

As Laurent Ruquier, a well-known radio and television presenter said on his daily round-table radio show yesterday, there could be more to Libération's report and "commissioned" poll than first meets the eye.

Why should anyone outside of the party be consulted as to who they thought would make the best candidate in the first place, he asked.

Ruquier pointed out that the paper had "conveniently" blurred the Socialist party's current modus operandi by introducing a "spurious" concept - that of non-party members getting a say in choosing the candidate in the first place.

He also questioned the "spin" the paper had put on the "findings" of the poll - by appearing to put in a good word in for DSK who has been "absented" from the domestic political scene ever since Sarkozy nominated him to be the head honcho at the IMF.

In fact Ruquier went so far as to call the poll a "lot of nonsense" during his programme, and accused "friends of DSK" and Libération itself of being in cahoots to give a false impression of how popular the man is.

He said the poll and the report was a clear "manipulating of the figures to give the wrong impression."

Oh dear. And thing's had been rather quiet recently on the political front here recently as far as the Socialist party has been concerned.

Perhaps too quiet.