Prediction: It will take a generation for Venezuela to recover from today's election--two, if it was stolen.
UPDATE: I would be so happy to be wrong, if it turns out that Chavez's power grab measures have in fact been defeated.
UPDATED AGAIN: Something tells me we haven't exactly heard the last of Chavez. Anyone want to bet he won't steal a play from the EU handbook, and keep holding elections until the voters get it right?
Got a call a little while ago from Caracas.
No is the winner!!!!!
Good take on your second update. I agree.
How much do you want to bet that when he does get the damn thing passed, Jimmy Carter will loudly proclaim its legitimacy?
Saw Hugo's press conference wherein he conceded defeat. The man was sweating like a whore in church.
Ory-Gun keeps voting our land use laws. Every year or two we have a new set of referendums with the accompanying millions of dollars in television advertising.
Our politicians won't pass laws. Attorneys keep challenging. Courts keep finding fault with certain verbiage. Petitions keep being signed.
Confiscating property rights by lawyer takes more time than doing it with guns and thugs.
Robert Mugabe has shown how long it can take. And what will be the results.
From Glenn: just keep holding this referendum until he wins -- at which point the time for voting will be over.
My first thought was not of the EU Handbook, it was of local school levies.
I seem to recall the the Dems pulling this successfully in a Washington state gubenatorial race a few years back, and everybody knows about their failed attempt to pull this off nationwide in 2000, all while accusing the GOP of doing the very thing they were trying.
I had heard the constitution prevents him from just trying this all over again, which would make this good news great news.