They booed the ‘rich’

It's an overcast Tuesday morning in Paris. Coffee in one hand, the International Herald Tribune newspaper in the other. The Seine River drifts peacefully by.

And the Complete Las Vegan notes to himself: "Different country, same old politics."

The front page story on the upcoming French presidential election says that the "far left" candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon is surging in the polls. He is a gifted orator, a Trotskyist who always wears his trademark red necktie.

He talks about "civil insurrection." The crowds carry red flags. They boo when he pronounces the word "rich" and cheer when he calls opponents "professional racists."

Sounds all too much like our "far left" president in America, who routinely enflames class and race warfare for political gain and, most recently and most unconscionably, whispers civil insurrection if the "unelected" Supreme Court knocks down his national health care law.

For those of you who missed it, may I direct you to my Sunday column on the topic.