Can Segolene Royal expect help from Merkel, Hillary?

Segolene Royal, Socialist female canidate for the French presidency. Mukhang hindi eh:

So far voters are not dividing along Daddy Sarko and Mommy Sego lines in the booth. Exit polls suggest that Sarkozy won 33 percent of the votes cast by women for 12 candidates in the preliminary round a week ago, while Royal drew 27 percent.

Nor is Royal getting momentum from an effort to suggest that the world would be a much better place under a sisterhood-in-power of Merkel, Clinton and herself.

Merkel, the Christian Democrat chancellor, prefers Sarkozy's policies on overhauling the European Union's institutions. And when Royal's camp put out feelers to Clinton's staff last year about a high-profile meeting of the two in New York, a deafening silence persuaded Royal's aides to cancel her trip to the United States.

It used to be said that for Americans, foreign policy debates stop at the water's edge. Today, so does political sisterhood.