Rachel Marsden   Because of Merah, an election fought on
economic grounds has become dominated almost exclusively by
national security. The extreme nationalist National Front party
has used the incident to leverage its support of stricter
immigration policy. Center-right French President Nicolas
Sarkozy wants to crack down on those who visit Internet "hate
sites" and who spend ample French holiday time training for
jihad overseas. The Socialist candidate has parlayed the
situation into an opportunity to regale the electorate with
homicide statistics.  Let's back up a bit. According to those
who knew him and have been interviewed thus far, Mohammed Merah
was a really nice guy -- smart, polite and well-spoken. His
pastimes included making various trips to Afghanistan and to the
Afghan-Pakistani border for some one-on-one time with jihadists,
and stocking up on an international array of heavy artillery in
the same way my grandmother collected miniature spoons -- all
under the lightly watchful eye of French intel