Many are excited about the U.S. presidential campaign as the months tick down to November 6.

But Matt Taibbi is not.

He writes in his latest Rolling Stone post - headlined "Is this the Most Boring Election Ever?":

Obama versus Romney is the worst reality show on TV since the Tila Tequila days. The characters are terrible, there's no suspense, and the biggest thing is, it lacks both spontaneity and a gross-out factor.

CNN talked with Taibbi on the "boring" election, what's ahead for the candidates and why he thinks 2012 is feeling a lot like 2004. FULL POST

By Kyle Almond, CNN

Two high-profile elections came to a head this past weekend, with voters in France and Greece taking their countries in a new direction.

But there’s still much more to watch for in 2012, a year in which nearly a third of the world’s countries are casting ballots.

FULL POST

After winning Sunday's presidential election in France, Socialist François Hollande is set to take over the reins from Nicolas Sarkozy by May 15.

What will be on Hollande's short-term agenda, what happens to Sarkozy and how will Sunday's results affect parliamentary elections in June? FULL POST

The U.S. economy is currently on autopilot: A sharply polarized Congress and a tapped out Federal Reserve can't do much more to stimulate it this year.

But the economy may still hit turbulence after voters in France and Greece delivered a resounding anti-austerity message over the weekend to their governments.

That message, say analysts, is likely to have implications for the United States that extend from its fragile economy to its planned withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Hollande swept to victory Sunday, becoming France's first-left wing president since Francois Mitterand left office in 1995.

That was followed by news that voters in Greece dealt major blows to the country's two most established parties in parliamentary elections, leaving no party with anything approaching a majority.

The message from voters in both countries appeared to be the same: The current policy of deficit-cutting, reduced spending and cuts to benefits and public services is unacceptable.

The election results leave in question what happens now to the eurozone and its debt crisis. France is a key player in plans to navigate it. And Greece is a recipient of bailout by the European Central Bank that requires the government to slash spending.

Read more about the implications

On "Fareed Zakaria GPS" this week: the global economy, China, the war on terror and a controversial defense of the 1%.

Fareed kicks things off with his Take: How Americans may have won the war on terror, but they don’t look like a people who have won a war.

The Financial Time's Martin Wolf and TIME’s Rana Foroohar help make sense of the U.S. jobs numbers, the recession in Europe and more about the global economy.

Then, exclusive to GPS, an unlikely defense of the 1%. Former Bain Capital Managing Director Ed Conard argues in a new book, “Unintended Consequences," that inequality is not necessarily bad. The rise of the 1% is good for the 99%, he argues.

Finally, the great historian Robert Caro on the years of President Lyndon Johnson, why he mattered and what we have to learn from him now.

All this on GPS Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Eastern. Excerpts below: FULL POST

Editor's Note: Richard N. Haass, formerly Director of Policy Planning in the U.S. State Department, is President of The Council on Foreign Relations. For more from Haass, visit Project Syndicate's excellent new website or follow it on Facebook and Twitter.

By Richard N. Haass, Project Syndicate

A surprising number of elections and political transitions is scheduled to occur over the coming months. An incomplete list includes Russia, China, France, the United States, Egypt, Mexico, and South Korea.

At first glance, these countries have little in common. Some are well-established democracies; some are authoritarian systems; and others are somewhere in between. Yet, for all of their differences, these governments – and the individuals who will lead them – face many of the same challenges. Three stand out. FULL POST

Editor's Note: The following is reprinted with the permission of the Council on Foreign Relations.

French Socialist challenger François Hollande beat President Nicolas Sarkozy in the first round of France's presidential election yesterday by 28 percent to 27 percent, even as far-right candidate Marine Le Pen captured an unprecedented 18 percent of the vote. Hollande and Sarkozy will face off in the final runoff vote on May 6 (Guardian), in an election that is expected to have significant implications for European integration and the eurozone's response to its ongoing sovereign debt crisis.

Analysis

"Mr. Sarkozy will have to find a way to attract most of Ms. Le Pen's votes as well as the 9.2 percent who voted for centrist Francois Bayrou, who finished fifth. This is no easy task, and his appeal will probably include a combination of anti-immigration riffs and more attacks on the European Central Bank (which has become the modern French substitute for running against the Germans)," notes this Wall Street Journal editorial. FULL POST

On GPS this Sunday - France's elections, India's missile test, the drug war in Mexico, and more.

I host an all-star GPS panel exploring the ramifications of this Sunday's French elections. His guests compare the first round to a U.S. primary, where politicians play to far ends of the spectrum. Anne-Marie Slaughter, Edward Luce, Bret Stephens and Emmanuel Saint-Martin weigh in.

Also: Hitting a BRIC wall. Investor Ruchir Sharma explains why Brazil, Russia, India, and China look tired. Instead, the future of growth lies elsewhere.

And then we have a moving interview with Newseek's Andrew Sullivan. He opens up about how being HIV positive delayed his getting a Green Card for 18 years. He's got his now, but he's still fighting to change a law that bars a gay Green-Card-seeker from qualifying via marriage to an American.

What in the World explores a controversial line of thinking: Despite 50,000 drug-related killings in 6 years, why Mexico may finally be winning the war on the cartels.

All that and more, on GPS this Sunday, 10a and 1p Eastern. Don't miss it!

Editor's Note: Tune in Sunday at 10a.m. or 1p.m. ET for Fareed Zakaria GPS on CNN.

By Fareed Zakaria, CNN

It has now been four years since the start of the global financial crisis. This was a crisis that showcased a breakdown of markets - too much leverage, too little concern about risks and too much debt. So you'd imagine that any political backlash would involve a move towards the left.

Well, that's not what happened.

Instead, we saw a shift towards the political right in much of the industrialized world. Here in America, the Tea Party was born, pulling conservatives further towards the right. Consider that in the 2008 election, Mitt Romney was considered the conservative challenger to John McCain. In this election he is the moderate, outflanked on the right by every other candidate.

This dynamic seems afoot in Europe as well. Britain's Conservatives returned to power after 13 years. Germany's Merkel and France's Sarkozy cemented their positions. Spain has a new conservative government.

What happened to the left? Why was there no great surge in left-wing populism? FULL POST

2012 is the year of the election. Not just in the United States, but Russia just voted, France will vote next month, and China's top leadership will undergo an upheaval toward the end of the year. What will all these changes mean for the world...and for world affairs? Sunday at 10a and 1p ET on CNN GPS, I'll have a great panel to discuss this.

Then, President Obama just named his nominee to run the World Bank. I'll talk to the one of the only people who has run that institution for two terms, James Wolfensohn, the world's banker.

And what's the secret to business success in the digital age? I'll ask serial entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, who was in the on ground floor of LinkedIn, Paypal and Zynga, among many others.

Also, can you be friends with your friend's enemy? Playground politics on the international stage.