If that projection is accurate, perhaps he really did benefit from an "elect a experienced politician" move in response to that latest shooting. Fillon overtaking her is too much to hope for, I suppose.

and the second and third place finishers projected to be within two points of each other.

In such an unusual election that seems to be begging to get egg on your face.

This fascist garbage has to stop somewhere.

And the one-eyes neo-nazi had made about 18% in the first round.
If it doesn't stop there, in Europe, it'll stop in the streets.
Capitalists know that and they by far prefer to keep it off the streets.

LePen has surrounded herself with Nazis. She and her party are under investigation for abusing campaign finance.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/world/europe/marine-le-pen-national-front-party.html

Le Pen will get 35 to 40 percent of the vote. Macron will win with 60 to 65 percent of the vote.

Two weeks is not enough time to make up all that ground, especially without a corrupt FBI setting out to rig the election for one of the candidates.

I can't see the other candidates voters going to her, but who knows?

Thank you for this; you've made my day . I've been very nervous all day given i'm fearful there is a wave of far right anarchists threatening the free world.

Also adding that Benoit Hamon is endorsing Macron as well. I really hope with the added endorsements they will give Le Pen the boot in the final election in May.

Le pen doesn't just need to lose. She needs to get an ass whipping.

Yes, the fascist hussy made it to the runoff and came close; but it's worth remembering the last time the FN was in a runoff - her father, Jean-Marie, in 2002 - they made practically no inroads with the electorate beyond their first-round haul.

The elder Le Pen got 17% in the first round, and all of 18% in the second.

halt the march of stupidity and fascism.

And give the American wingnuts something to complain about. Their ideology defeated by "cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys".

If history is any indication, Le Pen will be unable to extend her vote very much beyond the 21% she won tonight.

Her father, who famously made it to the runoff in 2002 with just 17% of the vote due to a crowded field on the left, got just 18% in the second round - and President Chirac (the winner) was on the ballot and very unpopular at the time.

that means there are a greater majority of smart French than there are smart Americans. Sad isn't it?

The French press pretty much cover the ideological spectrum; but they don't anything like the quasi-fascist, corporate backed behemoth that is Faux News.

In that, we're more like Italy - with its Berlusconi-controlled Mediaset media giant (a spinoff of the Fininvest media group Berlusconi co-founded with the fascist P-2 lodge about the same time Murdoch was making his first forays into U.S. media).

But the folks who wrote 60 Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong will definitely need to update their book!