The UMP Leadership Fight

The Fillon forces are girding their loins for battle. Philippe Goujon, a deputy and mayor of the XVe Arrdt. of Paris, has launched an "Appeal of the 144" to unseat Copé. I don't expect much intellectual enlightenment from this battle between two cults of personality. What will be interesting will be how the winner deals with the losers. And how the Sarkozy loyalists are treated. Most UMP sympathizers still prefer Sarkozy to either of the two prime contenders to replace him, according to one recent poll. Whoever wins will face a formidable task of party rebuilding and ideological reorientation.