The enigma of Nikolas Sarkozy seems to deepen every week. He has retaken the opinion poll lead and he is publishing a book - a manifesto really -- to fuel his campaign to succeed the fatuous degenerate Jaques Chirac as President of the Republic.

You can see Sarkozy's political gifts at work here. He says wants to attend to

an economic culture that penalises work; the failed integration of African and Arab immigrants; and a dysfunctional system of government.

All real problems, issues that desperately need to be dealt with and issues where the political establishment has failed badly.

In the last 20 years, he writes, France has plunged from sixth to 17th place in the country rankings of GDP per inhabitant; social expenditure has shot from 20 to 33 percent of output; unemployment is stuck at near 10 percent; and more than half of workers earn less than EUR 1,500 (1,885 dollars) a month.

He will be strongly attacked for saying this, which will suit him because his criticism is true and everyone knows it is. But he glosses lightly over the solutions, almost all of which he either cowers from or, as articulated by him (but probably never to be practiced), would make most of the problems demonstrably worse.

It's a stunning political inversion though to see him described as a right-winger because he believes in affirmative action:

he again praises the US system of "affirmative action" - which he says has allowed millions of black and Hispanic Americans to enter the middle-class. "Positive discrimination is an experience that could inspire us," Sarkozy writes.

In France, the left champions 'equality'. The principle is deeply embedded in the political culture - and in France it means in practice that you treat everyone the same. So, for example, you teach all 10 year olds in France the same maths class at 10AM Monday regardless of their ability because it is unfair and unequal to treat some kids differently to others (okay they don't still quite do that, but it's close enough). The left position in France is actually the Don Brash position in New Zealand. It sits impossibly alongside diversity.

Sarkozy however is a hypocrite. "I abhor racism. I detest xenophobia. I believe in the strength and richness of diversity. I love the idea of a France of many faces," he says. Yes, he loves the many faces so much he banned headscarves in schools to get a better looks at them.