Winners (and whiners?)
Leopoldo. Yes, him, believe it or not. The smashing victory that Capriles got was thanks to him. He managed, somewhat, to make his Voluntad Popular fans work for Capriles even though he lost the very few holds he had along the way (Chacao anyone?). But for him, for his future, and even better, for Voluntad Popular he looked better last night standing in the background of a big winner, than having shared equally with the other losers. By the way, it was very classy of him that even on stage he made as much as possible an effort to stay behind the 5 candidates remaining. Duly noted.
Primero Justicia. though we also have the whiners there. I mean, this morning one of their guys said on TV that "the best had won" which not only was stupid, but was also a total misreading of the situation and, further, was a very nasty augury for what is next. If people like that are not quickly put under control a fast crash landing is in the works. Still, with a sweep of Miranda, Aragua conquest and a few scattered freebies, they have all the right in the world today to feel happy about themselves.
Losers, and many of them but I will not list them all
AD, COPEI and "la cuarta". All that reminded folks of pre Chavez years, from Diego Arria to the pseudo electoral machinery of AD and Copei was rejected. It does not matter whether this people deserved what they got, it is what they got and they must live with it. Diego Arria can still salvage something: after all he is the number one contender for foreign minister to Capriles and Capriles would be a fool to pass on that (the more so he said today that he did not want to be world leader, that he likes it here inside Venezuela). As Chigüire profiles said, Arria knows his way around London streets. But AD, COPEI, MAS et al? We are not talking aggiornamento here, we are talking Pentecostal baptismal pools....Repeatedly...
Maria Corina Machado. All her talk of that she could beat Chavez did not fly in the end. I can count personally at least 6 people who were going to vote for her as late as Friday. On Sunday they voted for Capriles 4 and 2 for Perez because "he is better to fight Chavez". Heck, even the fun polls of this blog still up on the right corner tells you that story when you compare them! That is the price to pay when you think that beauty and brains are enough to carry the day in a country as superficial and venal and lambucia as Venezuela. Her message was only good for diffident wanna be intellectuals like yours truly who is never afraid to vote for a lost cause if it is "right". Yet, all is not lost. She gets a starting capital of 100K something votes which are hard core votes and probably a potential of an additional twice that much softer votes, if it were a more normal country. So it is up to her to work for this becoming a more normal country and for that she needs to get back to the National assembly and become Capriles point man there, saying all the stuff that it is better not said by him during the campaign. A good cop bad cop game in the next months favoring Capriles is the best way to rebuild her career. Her time will come, if she is smart enough to understand that.
Chavez. Silly me, of course he is the last but biggest of this list..... yesterday he lost on so many counts that it would require a full lengthy post to account for all the ways I love thee not. But even as the disaster was coming he could not resit to pile more mistakes and he made a near cadena from La Victoria, forcing Venevision and Televen to show his speech instead of reporting on the true news of the day. Obsession ends in perdition, ask Othello. His mistakes were: never believe the MUD would manage it (so no plan B ever existed); ridicule the MUD primary and its candidates (thus giving them free publicity in chavista state TV, forgetting that there is not such thing as bad publicity as Woody Allen said, I think); threaten his followers with retaliation if they voted in the primaries (which sure enough send quite a few of them yesterday, more on that later). And more but yet it was not enough apparently as today his sycophantic "cagatintas" are all over trying to explain yesterday and only making things worse. Someone, some day, inside chavismo has to realize that silence can be golden, even for a few minutes at a time.
The more I listen to Capriles, and the others, the more hope I have for our country.
ReplyDeleteThis guy seems very sincere, humble, and driven.
Real proud, as a kid who grew up there, here's the new generation: watch out!
Don't miss some of the latest videos at noticias24, or elsewhere.
"Capriles would be a fool to pass on that (the more so he said today that he did not want to be world reader"
ReplyDeleteHe wourd be too ronery if he was a worrd reader.
And according to the internet "There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary." comes from Brendan Behan, not Woody Allen.
corrected
DeleteFeel sad about Maria Corina. The election became about the one who can beat Chavez. I voted for her even if I was considering giving up and for Henrique. He obviously didn't need my vote. I don't regret it. This is only the beginning for her. Now is not her time, but her time will come.
ReplyDeleteNice post, Daniel. Bland the "nouveau chic politique", love it.
ReplyDeleteI voted for MCM, not sorry that I did, nor sad that she did not win. (I suspected that HCR would be a shoe-in.) Frankly, I didn't expect her to get as many votes as she did. Her conciliation speech was disappointing. "Limp" as one commenter put it. I agreed. It had the faint whiff of a sore loser. I would have liked her to appreciate her votes, to realize that she has much work ahead of her, and to keep the UNIDADt in mind.
ReplyDeleteA question for Boat People: could you please, please, translate into Vietnamese a very small text for Wikipedia on Capriles?
ReplyDeleteThanks.
"Henrique Capriles Radonski (born July 11, 1972) is a Venezuelan politician. From 2000 until 2008, Capriles was the mayor of Baruta Municipality of Caracas; he launched his candidacy for the Miranda state government in 2008. In November 2008, Capriles was elected the new Governor of Miranda, defeating Diosdado Cabello. After winning the election primaries held by the opposition, Capriles became the opposition candidate for the Venezuelan presidential election, 2012."
"Some one some day inside chavismo has to realize that silence can be golden, even for a few minutes at a time."
ReplyDeleteI don´t know why but the "rojitos" are jumping around trying to explain and reduce the numbers of the opposition. I still can believe they are so upset. Which give me hopes that they are scared of the opposition results.
Specially some obnoxious guy that previously predicted that there would not be a primary or it would get less that 500.000 votes
"Heck, even the fun polls of this blog still up on the right corner tells you that story when you compare them!"
ReplyDeleteNot only that, but the first poll (actual votes) took a dramatic shift towards HCR, after favoring MCM, in the last day or two before. From those two results, I'm thinking the undecideds did not split very evenly in this case, but went significantly to him.
You are right, I should have kept statistics on that shift but MCM was winning until Friday morning. though Capriles was always a couple of votes behind.
DeleteWatched Capriles yesterday on TV. Compared to the load of malarkey we have been submitted to over the last few years, this is a breath of fresh air. Just for TV appearance he should become president.
ReplyDeleteI don't see MCM as a loser, at all. She gained nationwide respect and recognition. She's young, has a lot ahead of her. Capriles should utilize her as much as possible, make her minister or ambassador or something.
ReplyDeleteShe will continue to gain political experience and could be a major factor next time around.
I listened to HCR (almost reads as HCF) yesterday, both the press conference (where he was given by gosh a copy of Open Veins, ajaja, it made me laugh so hard, these guys have no new ideas at all) and with Ciudadano where he was interrupted by a cadena on the Day of Youth and Chávez speaking about Bolivar and imperialism which only made him look stupider when you started comparing the body language and speach of both. Looking forward to the next seven months. Should be very interesting.... Thanks for keeping us up-to-date and posted. Great job!
ReplyDeleteVenezuela Court Blocks Destruction of Voter Lists:
ReplyDeleteVenezuela's Supreme Court has ordered opposition electoral officials not to destroy lists of voters following primary elections. Rafael Velasquez was a mayoral contender in Sunday's primary and sought the court order so that voter lists could be reviewed.
Venezuela's opposition coalition had decided that books with voters' names and identification numbers would be burned as an extra measure to ensure secrecy.
The issue is of concern to the opposition. After a failed 2004 recall vote against President Hugo Chavez, a list of those who had petitioned for the vote was leaked and widely circulated. Some have said that list was used at times by Chavez supporter to single out opponents.
The Supreme Court announced its decision Tuesday.
Winners: VN&V readers, who get to read Daniel's narratives on Venezuela.
ReplyDeleteflattery will get you everywhere....
Delete