Mr. Sarkozy also apparently smelled a plot, perhaps by the Socialists to undermine him before the elections, perhaps by other forces, including, aides hinted, his political rival, the former prime minister Dominique de Villepin, or the British financial markets worried about the French push for harsher regulation of the City of London.
The apartheid-era police turned their guns on crowds, and just before the 1994 election, perhaps 10,000 blacks died in political and ethnic fighting.
And certainly, if Israel makes a move on Iran -- which remains a distinct possibility whoever wins the election -- and perhaps even before, as I discuss here -- it will not only reflect on the US yet again, it may pull us directly or indirectly into the ugliest war we've yet seen in the Middle East.
But it appeared that the request could be handled expeditiously – perhaps before the election.
That was an indirect way of saying that no harsh economic medicine would be doled out before a legislative election in July and perhaps not before the election of the ruling party's president in September.
The presidential contest in Nevada is competitive, with Southern California workers planning to make the trip to Nevada again this weekend, and perhaps once more before the election, in hopes they can sway the U.S. Senate race for Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto and shore up the state for Clinton.
Perhaps his only excuse is that before the election he was shadow chief secretary to the treasury and hasn't got up to speed on transport issues.
Though this series of Political Factory did not gain a prime-time live slot and had to make do with coverage on state-loyal local news, the organisers hope to repeat its success next autumn before national parliamentary elections, perhaps using live audience votes similar to Big Brother.
An Iraqi minister thinks that more Sunnis can be encouraged to come forward, perhaps by the holding of an open, multi-party conference before the election.
What this jobs report perhaps does do is remove Mr. Romney's best opportunity to shift the polls in his direction before the election.
