Oh yes that saying that a "picture is worth a thousand words."
How unfortunate for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund and (still undeclared) frontrunner for the Socialist party's primary to choose its candidate for next year's presidential election.
DSK, as he's more commonly known to the French, has been snapped climbing into a modest little Porsche with his wife Anne Sinclair.
It was shot by a photographer from Agence France Presse while the couple were in Paris on April 28 making one of their oh-so-regular flying visits that seem to be part of preparing the ground for DSK's eventual declaration that he's going to run in the Socialist party's primary later this year.
Since it appeared in the national daily Le Parisien on Tuesday and had a radio commentary dedicated to it a day later from Hervé Gattegno, the editor of the weekly news and current affairs magazine, Le Point, the photograph and its implications seem to have taken on a life of their own.
Gattegno said it had been DSK's first "big mistake" and there were plenty who seemed to agree.
The Net has been abuzz with comments as the French website Le Post points out.
Bloggers and Twitterers have been ironically welcoming a new ear of potential Bling Bling - this time from the Socialist party.
And political opponents - ever eager - have also been getting in on the act.
"The Socialist Party is evolving in a curious way, the former interior minister Brice Hortefeux said when asked about the photograph on BFM TV.
"In 1981, the symbol was the fist and rose. Today it's driving a Porsche."
And it wasn't just any old Porsche - it was one worth $100,000 according to Le Figaro.
What does indeed seem to have been a monumental image faux pas for DSK is also being seen as giving French president Nicolas Sarkozy's governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) a potential angle of attack for the 2012 campaign in the form of the DSK-Sinclair lifestyle.
It doesn't matter that the car wasn't actually his but belonged to an IMF colleague who was with the couple in Paris, as DSK supporters have been quick to point out.
He should have known better and realise that his every word and gesture is being scrutinised.
DSK and his wife may well be privileged and far removed from the traditional base of support for the Socialist party - the so-called working class.
But there really is no need to appear to be flaunting the differences between his lifestyle and that of the ordinary French citizen.
Already some are using that neologism "Prolophobia" to describe the behaviour of the Socialist party.
The apparent rejection of the values of those people to whom it has traditionally appealed - the country's working class - has been offered up as an explanation to the rise in support of the far-right Front National and its leader Marine Le Pen.
And now after years of la gauche caviar, it now seems as though DSK is prepared to take things one step further by redefining it as la gauche Porsche.
Woe betide the Socialist party if it falls into that trap - and heaven help the French.
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4 comments:
Move over Sarkozy, DSK is the new king of Bling Bling.
As one commentator said, "la Porsche Tranquille", referring to Francois Mitterand's "la Force Tranquille".
Well I think DSK has just lost the election or the primary. Bring back Segolene Royal, at least she knows how to behave in front of ordinary citizens!
Proof that DSK is more of a friend to the rich and powerful than he is to the majority of French. Hope this dents his ratings but not the chances of a more suitable candidate emerging to beat Le Pen and Sarkozy.
Oh what class! He and his wife are as bad as Kouchner and Christine Okrent. More fake Socialists interested in themselves and not society. Shame on you DSK.
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