NYT editorial: A Tale of Two Strongmen

A Tale of Two Strongmen
Published: December 4, 2007

Voters on Sunday gave a split decision to two of the world’s most prominent and problematic authoritarian leaders. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, turned a parliamentary election into a referendum on himself and cynically manipulated a huge victory, undermining what was left of the independence of the Duma and Russian politics. In Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez’s latest and most outrageous power grab was rejected at the ballot box, offering hope that political competition there will now flourish.

Mr. Putin’s sales pitch in his phony parliamentary election was that he had brought Russia stability and global respect. A huge number of voters — grateful for the bounty of Russia’s oil wealth — bought it and looked the other way when Mr. Putin jailed his opponents and crushed their access to the media.

Nobody knows what Mr. Putin, whose second four-year term ends in March, now has in mind. One possibility is that he will use the same dirty tricks to ensure the election of a weak president and then come back as prime minister. But as Mr. Putin well knows, power corrupts and even a handpicked successor may not be that compliant. So he may now try to rewrite the Constitution so that he can run for a third term. Either ploy would do even more damage to Russia’s battered democracy.

Since taking office eight years ago, President Chávez has grabbed ever more power, using his nation’s oil wealth to buy up popular support. But he went too far pushing for constitutional reforms that would have given him control over nearly every major political institution, as well as the option to stand for re-election as often as he wanted. Mr. Chávez is still very powerful, and he has made clear that he considers the setback only temporary. To his credit, he quickly accepted the results....

The defeat of his reform package does show what can happen when a divided opposition unites and voters choose the rule of law over the whims of a strongman. Russia’s voters should take a good look at what went right in Venezuela and what’s going so badly wrong in their own country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/opinion/04tue1.html?hp

The NYT almost figures it out: "To his credit, he quickly accepted the results", but having invested so much intellectual capital in portraying Chavez as a dictator/strongman/etc. they couldn't quite make the connection.

The NYT..invested so much intellectual capital in portraying Chavez as a dictator/strongman...

Would a REAL "dictator strongman" accept the will of the people so gracefully? Who is the New York Times to be calling an election "cynical?" And what's Spanish for "I have a towel if you'd like to wipe that egg from your face?"

:headbang:
rocknation