ethics
05-18-2006, 09:50 PM
From FP:
If I were a rich guy I'd subscribe to World Energy Monthly Review (http://www.worldenergysource.com/wemr/index.cfm) for the everyday low price of $289 a year. But until my cash flow improves, I'll just drool over the table of contents and link to the pieces they make available online. Which brings me to their nice compilation (http://www.worldenergysource.com/WEMR/cover.cfm?ci=17&pid=5) of opinions on Chavez.
Most interesting to me what Michael Rowan, the former president of the International Association of Political Consultants and a journalist living in Caracas has to say [emphasis mine]:
In April 1998, Hugo Chávez was running a distant fourth in the presidential race, with only a few percentage points in the national voter polls. But he won with 56 percent of the vote by promising to share Venezuela's oil wealth with the poor. Since then, he has not delivered. While Chávez has relatively more power and money for elections than any other candidate in the democratic history of all the Americas, he can lose the December 3, 2006, presidential election.
Voters want results, not propaganda. Poverty, corruption and insecurity have increased dramatically since 1998. So why has Chávez won nine more elections since his 1998 victory? The answer is simple: No alternative leader or credible message to defeat poverty, corruption and insecurity has come forth. What the opposition has been trying to do is get rid of Chávez -- and nothing more. But Venezuelans want to vote for, not just against. They don't want an opposition; they want a proposition. And in 2006, they will hear a proposition they can vote for.
Read the rest of what Rowan has to say if you're wondering which political leaders could emerge.
If I were a rich guy I'd subscribe to World Energy Monthly Review (http://www.worldenergysource.com/wemr/index.cfm) for the everyday low price of $289 a year. But until my cash flow improves, I'll just drool over the table of contents and link to the pieces they make available online. Which brings me to their nice compilation (http://www.worldenergysource.com/WEMR/cover.cfm?ci=17&pid=5) of opinions on Chavez.
Most interesting to me what Michael Rowan, the former president of the International Association of Political Consultants and a journalist living in Caracas has to say [emphasis mine]:
In April 1998, Hugo Chávez was running a distant fourth in the presidential race, with only a few percentage points in the national voter polls. But he won with 56 percent of the vote by promising to share Venezuela's oil wealth with the poor. Since then, he has not delivered. While Chávez has relatively more power and money for elections than any other candidate in the democratic history of all the Americas, he can lose the December 3, 2006, presidential election.
Voters want results, not propaganda. Poverty, corruption and insecurity have increased dramatically since 1998. So why has Chávez won nine more elections since his 1998 victory? The answer is simple: No alternative leader or credible message to defeat poverty, corruption and insecurity has come forth. What the opposition has been trying to do is get rid of Chávez -- and nothing more. But Venezuelans want to vote for, not just against. They don't want an opposition; they want a proposition. And in 2006, they will hear a proposition they can vote for.
Read the rest of what Rowan has to say if you're wondering which political leaders could emerge.