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This article investigates an episode of French political life, the candidacy of Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential election of 2012. While opinion polls (approval ratings and popularity) clearly showed that he was the most durably unpopular president of the Fifth Republic, his candidacy was never questioned by political journalists and commentators. Not only did they continuously underestimate that presidential unpopularity, they speculated on a forthcoming rebound. The moment is revealing beyond this individual case. It is an indicator of the reinforcement of heteronomous logics within the political field. More specifically it shows the weight of the alleged communication skills of the agents in the political field in the evaluations made by political journalists and politicians.