"biggest change may be in foreign affairs"
I thought I smelled something in the Chile.
"Piñera ends right wing’s long drought in Chile; Billionaire promised income, job growth" by Michael Warren, Associated Press | January 18, 2010
SANTIAGO, Chile - Billionaire Sebastian Piñera won Chile’s presidential vote yesterday in the country’s first democratic election of a right-wing ruler in 52 years.
Piñera earned 52 percent of the votes to 48 percent for the ruling coalition’s candidate, Eduardo Frei, with 99 percent of the ballots counted, ending two decades of center-left rule since Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship....
Piñera led by a wide margin throughout the race, which tightened only after Frei and outgoing President Michelle Bachelet repeatedly invoked the legacy of Pinochet, whose dictatorship was supported by the same parties that back Piñera.
Now I'm finding it hard to believe the results; however, if the Chileans accept them, not my business.
But many leftists are disenchanted after two decades with the same politicians in power, and their efforts to raise fears of a retreat on human rights failed to persuade enough of them to turn out against Piñera, whose success in the voting booth is the first for Chile’s right wing since Jorge Allesandri Rodriguez won the presidency in 1958....
A lot of that going around.
Frei and Piñera agreed on most issues, a reflection of the remarkable economic, social, and political success that has given Bachelet nearly 80 percent approval ratings.
And the incumbent party lost?
Analysts predicted Piñera would make no radical moves to shake up this consensus.
The biggest change may be in foreign affairs.
Bachelet tried to defuse tensions with Chile’s neighbors, putting Bolivia’s long-held desire for access to the sea on their bilateral agenda and avoiding direct criticism of President Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez. But Piñera, a friend of Colombia’s conservative president, Alvaro Uribe, has been more outspoken, criticizing populism as a failed approach and saying Venezuela “is not a democracy as it is.’’ He also vowed never to concede any of Chile’s coast to Bolivia.
Worked out for the U.S., huh?
With Congress evenly divided, Piñera will need leftists to get anything done, and for the first time since Pinochet’s 1973 coup, this includes several Communist Party lawmakers whose votes could become key tiebreakers. Piñera put his doctorate in philosophy in economics from Harvard to use, popularizing credit cards in Chile, growing a fortune that includes a large share of Chile’s main airline, a leading television channel, and the country’s most popular soccer team.
I'm convinced more than ever he's our guy and agent.
At 60, he still enjoys risky sports, from paragliding to scuba-diving, rafting, and piloting his helicopter. Often on the move and with natural good humor, he laughs off nervous tics that include shrugging his shoulders, pressing his lips, and rocking his head from side to side, once confessing that he buys clothes two sizes too big to feel more comfortable.
Who cares about any of that crap?
This was his second run for the presidency. He lost by nearly 7 points to Bachelet in 2006 and has remained in permanent campaign mode since then, promising “change, future, and hope’’ for all Chileans.
Oh, that's why they elected him; so he would shut up and go away!
