[mseebach]

It's easy to over-emphasize the importance of the voting system. I note how you contrast the badness of winning with 43% and 48% of the vote with a guy who won with 29% of the vote. Yes, you get the run-off, but most of the time, that just degenerates into a free-for-all in the first round and the "real election" between the two "real" parties in the second. You even get the issue of vote-splitting: In 2002, Front National narrowly beat the socialists, so the run-off was between conservative Chirac and far-right Le Pen. Chirac got 20% in the first round and 82% in the second - on a 32%/68% favorable rating.

Voting isn't really about lofty ideals and finding the best person for the job. The presidents of France aren't significantly or consistently better or worse than the presidents of the US. The fact is that across all the voting systems in the free democratic world, the people elected are rarely brilliant and visionary leaders - they are just good enough and there is a solid mechanism for firing them if they screw up badly enough.