Rich has become a dirty word in France's Presidential election

Nicolas Sarkozy is making a bid for a second term but the french now find his "hyper president" style too aggressive. His reputation as a pro-rich president has been dragging him down. Sarkozy celebrated his last election victory in 2007 in a posh restaurant on the Champs Elysées in Paris with his rich friends. That was his first faux pas. He then took a holiday break in the Mediterranean on a yacht borrowed from a billionaire friend, Vincent Bolloré and the french didn't like that either. He raised his own salary when he came to office and that made people suspicious. His courting of Carla Bruni on their Egyptian holiday was too much of showing off of private life- something the french don't approve of. During this election campaign, he apologised to his voters. In a recent rally he said , "I've made mistakes but I've always tried to be fair, to be sincere, and to give all I could, all I could, even when personal sufferings were there." But the damage is already done.