I’m old enough to remember when Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen in the French Presidential elections and was quickly described as the new leader of the free world. (He was also almost immediately proclaimed the World’s Sexiest G7 Leader, unless Trudeau beat him out.) His popularity seemed nearly universal, with global leaders rushing to cozy up to him. But then, as with the leaders of all nations, the actual work of running the country interfered with the victory parade. Once his policies began being put into place, things started to change. And now, in well less than half a year, a majority of French voters are dissatisfied with his performance already. (Reuters)

Most French voters are now dissatisfied with Emmanuel Macron’s performance, a poll showed on Sunday, marking a dramatic turnaround for a president who basked in a landslide election victory less than four months ago.

The poll, conducted by Ifop for newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) showed Macron’s dissatisfaction rating at 57 percent, 14 percentage points worse than Ifop’s last poll in July.

Forty percent expressed satisfaction with the centrist leader – also down 14 points from July.

If Macron can take comfort from anything it’s probably that his 47% share is still well ahead of Donald Trump’s, but a double digit drop in approval that quickly has got to be worrying. Frankly, most of Macron’s initial popularity was probably derived from the fact that Le Pen was such a polarizing figure and so deeply hated or feared by the socialists who still dominate French culture that they would have launched a ticker-tape parade for anyone who managed to beat her. But the realities of some of Macron’s proposals (such as cuts to housing assistance to relieve the budget a bit) have already begun to leave a sour taste in some voters’ mouths.

Of course, some of his other habits are getting under the skin of the French as well. You might have heard that word leaked out about Macron’s makeup budget. No… I don’t mean a second try at passing a budget. I mean the amount of money he spends getting his makeup done. (Redstate)

Being the French President can’t be easy. Not only do you have a country to lead, but you’re under so much pressure to look cool before a fawning media. Emmanuel Macron has only been president for three months but, The Telegraph reports, he’s already spent more than $30,000 on…makeup…

(Note, that is roughly $36,000 US). The balding Hollande, The Telegraph reported, also spent nearly $128,000 on his personal barber, “spark(ing) accusations of ‘shampoo socialism.’” One can’t help but wonder what Trump spends on that hair situation he’s got going on.

The French have problems in the integrity department when it comes to their elected officials. One of the reasons that Macron made it through the initial election and into the runoff was that one of his chief opponents had been found to have been paying his wife vast sums of taxpayer dollars for a job she reportedly never showed up for. Others had similar skeletons in their closets. In retrospect, electing the guy who flushes $36K into his stylist and face powdering assistant still probably looks like a relatively good bargain.