Decision ‘08

Two Surprises

I must say, I am astonished that emerging tyrant Hugo Chavez is letting (for now, at least) a quite public rebuke of his rule stand:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez suffered an unprecedented defeat after voters on Sunday rejected a constitutional package of 69 reforms that included scrapping presidential term limits and declaring Venezuela a socialist state.

It is the first major electoral setback suffered by Mr. Chávez, a former military officer, since he swept into office nine years ago and the clearest sign yet that support for his “21st-century socialism” is on the wane.

Buoyed by record-high oil prices, he has created allies at home and abroad as he has doled out millions in social-service programs and discounted oil, at the same time becoming increasingly hostile toward the US, which he calls the “empire.”

But analysts say that many of the reforms on the ballot Sunday were too radical for some voters, and that an amendment to abolish term limits was seen as a power grab. Although he remains widely popular and opponents only won by two points, Venezuelans rejected a new Constitution that would have forged the way for him to become the most powerful leader in Latin America. The defeat may limit his reform plans and serve as a warning to other regional leaders following in his footsteps.

A happy day, indeed! Let’s hope he doesn’t try an end-around…

I am, frankly, perplexed at the timing of the release today of the NIE on Iran. Don’t get me wrong - I’m not the type of conservative to discount the report because of a lust for war with Iran. On the contrary - if Iran did put its nuclear weapons program on hold in 2003, that’s a good thing - no, scratch that, a great thing. God knows, after the intelligence debacle pre-Iraq, that caution is the keyword.

However, I’m certain there’s a backstory here, and I’ve been too busy to research it…if any readers, right or left, have good links to share, please do so…

Not surprising at all, however, is the stolen election by the now full-blown authoritarian tyrant Vladimir Putin:

International observers issued a highly scathing report on Russia’s elections yesterday, describing the poll as “not fair” and highlighting numerous flaws including the “unprecedented” abuse of office by President Vladimir Putin.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Sunday’s parliamentary elections had failed to meet the organisation’s commitments and standards. “It was not a fair election,” Göran Lennmarker, the head of the OSCE’s parliamentary assembly said.

The observers said there were at least four areas of major concern. These included a “strong bias” in the media in favour of Putin and his United Russia party and widespread reports of harassment of Russia’s opposition parties.

Very troubling, and unfortunately, par for the course in a Russia that is starting to remind me more and more of the bad old days…

4 Responses to “Two Surprises”

1 peter Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
The day after you write this post, the New York Times prints a very similar editorial:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/opinion/04tue1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

You think Gail Collins has been reading your blog?
2 Michael Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I am surprised of the defeat and Chavez letting it stand.
As for Putin; I work with a woman who still has family in Russia; she is here because she was forced to leave the USSR because her family was involved with dissidents. What surprises me she and her family are semi-Putin supporters. The chaos and the economy was so bad in Russia that many were frightened; I’m still surprised by who is supporting him.
3 Aaron Says:
December 4th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Chavez still has five years to declare himself president for life. If he locks up, shoots or bribes only one percent of the population before he reintroduces his “reforms” again, he’ll get it.

Also, his graciousness in accepting the results is just a ploy, I suspect. If he accepts the results of an election as legitimate, there may be a sliver of people who voted against him this time that may think to themselves, “Well, we can see that he really is a democrat and will abide by the rule of law. It wouldn’t hurt to let him run again. I’m sure if he loses, he’ll concede defeat just as graciously as he did back in 2007.”
4 Mark Says:
December 5th, 2007 at 9:34 am
If Gail Collins is reading me, she’s a masochist…