I think I figured it out!

Chavez Fixed the elections so he would loose, so the world could trust him!!
Now for his devious plan to invade America using Castro or something...
Its the only possibility.. this guy is a tin pot dictator and a tyrant.

Stalin, Hitler, Osama Bin laden, COMMIES!!! ect ect ect..


If you dont agree with this, you hate democracy.

:eyes:

So you're disappointed that Chavez won't be dictator for life. Get over it.

was completely wrong.

Clearly, he hasn't risen to the level of Putin. But, he has time. Let's not sell him short.

Most Chavez haters were pretty strident about calling him a dictator, despite him being continually re-elected.

I personally am pretty neutral about him. I think he's done some great things for his country and was popular because of it. I do think he over-reached a handful of times, but I also suspect that the stories we get about him are biased, especially in light of how many times we've overthrown Leftist Democracies in Latin America and elsewhere, and in how many times we've backed his opponents' attempts to oust him. In other words, I don't believe much of what American Corporate Media says about him any more than I think they tell the truth about Bush.

If he steps down - and I think he will based on his statements - I will personally find it pretty damn funny that so many were wrong about him. I find it even "funnier" that so many Chavez haters don't spend the same energy denouncing other authoritarian leaders. I strongly suspect that many in America on both sides of the political spectrum are still under the thrall of McCarthyist anti-Communism, which in my opinion has done more harm than good in the world. Hell, we might not be where we are now with Iran if we had not caused problems there in 1953.

In other words, although I am not a communist, I find hardline anti-communists to be pretty damn ridiculous, at least as much as hardline capitalists or other extremists who can't seem to see past the ideologies handed to them.

I also fall outside your box of those who consider him a dictator. I think he aspires for significantly more power, but he is being careful in how he attains it.