On the 4th of October we could see a great example of how democracy works. Obama became the president of the United States of America and McCain conceded in an excellent speech. As Miguel, I am also happy Obama won. There are several reasons why I think Obama is better for the United States, but here I want to talk about why he is good for Venezuela.
- Chávez thrives on insulting Bush. He needed badly someone as unpopular as Bush. Obama will probably enjoy more respect than Bush and it will be more difficult for Chávez to find a "devil" to blame for every evil on Earth
- Obama knows how to deal with the Venezuelan autocrat: he can very well express his understanding and concern for different nations and expose at the same time the ways in which Chávez tries to manipulate people and misuse democracy.
- A change of power in the United States, in spite of all the discussions and mud thrown ing during election time, is done in a fairly respectful manner for Venezuelan standards. That is something Venezuelans can see and hope for in Venezuela. I'd rather have Venezuelans see more of how other democracies work, like those - also very imperfect - in Westen and Northern Europe, but the United States is closer and good enough.
When Chávez was defeated in 2007's referendum, the parties of the extreme Left in Europe shamefully said Chávez had shown statemanship by conceding defeat the first day. They did not say Chávez soon ordered all TV and radio stations to broadcast his message (as he does for hours every week) where he claimed the opposition's victory was a pyrhic victory and a "shitty, shitty, shitty victory" and where he further announced he would not change anything from his proposal but propose it later. He claimed people had just not understood and listened to the opposition's media manipulation. Perhaps some lefties abroad still think Venezuela's media is mainly opposed to Chávez. In reality, only the TV channel Globovisión can be seen via open signal in Caracas. RCTV and Globovisión have to be received via cable or satellite and less than 30% of Venezuela's population have satellite or cable.
Worried Chavez?
ReplyDeleteYes but no more then usual for a leader whose party is about to face the polls later this month. His party may loose a few municipalities or two, maybe loose control over a state or two. But should nothing happen before January 20, he will be able then to rest assured knowing there will not be another US initiated Coup against him.
I expect that Hugo Chavez will have no more difficulty in working with President Obama than he had with President Clinton.
Skywalker, how many states do you think Hugo will lose?
ReplyDeleteCan you bet here? (no money, just state your prediction).
Also: could you guess how many people will be "inhabilitados", thus how many candidates the CNE will exclude from the elections during these last couple of weeks before the elections?
I just want you to state your predictions as so many Chavistas stated their predictions before the referendum of last year.
Gracias