[tomder55]

Most dictators initially get elected ;and usually have favorable turnouts in rigged elections thereafter .

[smoothy]

most dictators initially get elected ;and ususally have favorable turnouts in rigged elections thereafter .

As witnessed in the so-called elections in the old Soviet Union... and Cuba as two examples... an election isn't always really an election.

[paraclete]

If Chavez hadn't made a difference no one would morne his passing, I think the mobs speak for themselves, but if you want to take your opinions from disident expats in Florida

[smoothy]

If Chavez hadn't made a difference noone would morne his passing, I think the mobs speak for themselves, but if you want to take your opinions from disident expats in Florida

Really... history proves you wrong. Look at the mourning for Stalin and Mao after they killed tens of Millions... they made Adolph Hitler look like a rank amateur as far as mass murder is concerned.

[speechlesstx]

Clete, Hitler's people loved him, too.

[excon]

Hello again, wingers:

Chavez was a popularly elected socialist president.. He did what you THINK socialists do, and that's GIVE free stuff to the poor. And, he did. That's why they like him. It's also the reason why you shouldn't like him... But, to compare him with Hitler and the other mass murderers is just BONKERS...

But, I'm used to your bonkerism.. That's why I'm here.

excon

[paraclete]

Clete, Hitler's people loved him, too.

Speech, it seems some have an ability to take the people with them, but he is gone and a new era emerges, we should focus on that and stop this glass half full rubbish

[smoothy]

Hello again, wingers:

Chavez was a popularly elected socialist president.. He did what you THINK socialists do, and that's GIVE free stuff to the poor. And, he did. That's why they like him. It's also the reason why you shouldn't like him... But, to compare him with Hitler and the other mass murderers is just BONKERS...

But, I'm used to your bonkerism.. That's why I'm here.

excon

So was Adolph Hitler... lets see you heap some praise on him too... he actually did more for the German people than Chavez did for his.

[tomder55]

Hello again, wingers:

Chavez was a popularly elected socialist president.. He did what you THINK socialists do, and that's GIVE free stuff to the poor. And, he did. That's why they like him. It's also the reason why you shouldn't like him... But, to compare him with Hitler and the other mass murderers is just BONKERS...

But, I'm used to your bonkerism.. That's why I'm here.

excon

The left thinks that repeating the big lie long enough will make it come true . The truth is that the people of Venezuela are far worse off because of the Chavez model compared to their immediate neighbors like Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama have been adopting a free market approach .Inflation has been rampant and that has forced the people to spend an increasing share of their wealth on basic necessities... that is when goods have been available in this land of scarcity .
Yes they were seduced by his populist rhetoric filling their minds with utopian dreams while he destroyed the democratic institutions in the country and plundered the treasury of the people's wealth. He turned an upcoming South American country ,loaded with the potential of it's energy wealth ,into a failed third world country .

When Chavez needed to get treated for cancer ,did he find it in his own country ? No .He ended up going to that land where according to Michael Moore ,health care is superior (Chavez is now the poster boy for the Cuban health care system)

So admire the tyrannical thug. He claimed to be the successor of the Bolivarian revolution ;but he was horse dung on Simon Bolivar's boots.

[tomder55]

Double post

[paraclete]

The left thinks that repeating the big lie long enough will make it come true . The truth is that the people of Venezuela are far worse off because of the Chavez model compared to their immediate neighbors like Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama have been adopting a free market approach .Inflation has been rampant and that has forced the people to spend an increasing share of their wealth on basic necessities... that is when goods have been available in this land of scarcity .
Yes they were seduced by his populist rhetoric filling their minds with utopian dreams while he destroyed the democratic institutions in the country and plundered the treasury of the people's wealth. He turned an upcoming South American country ,loaded with the potential of it's energy wealth ,into a failed third world country .

Making such comparisons is foolish, but if we wanted to say that Venezeula, because of its oil wealth, could have done much better then you are right. Social structural change is difficult to produce and your idea that a place where the elite prosper and the poor suffer might mirror the american model but it takes a generation to break the mould

When Chavez needed to get treated for cancer ,did he find it in his own country ? No .He ended up going to that land where according to Michael Moore ,health care is superior (Chavez is now the poster boy for the Cuban health care system)

I have heard of people from highly developed countries choosing to be treated in other countries where terminal disease is concerned. Cuba has an excellent health system so why would he not seek there what wasn't available at home. What you are really saying is he should have lifted the Venezeulan health system to the standard of Cuba, last time I looked magic wands were in short supply and so are trained medical staff in many parts of the world. Tom I abhor your hypocrisy

So admire the tyrannical thug. He claimed to be the successor of the Bolivarian revolution ;but he was horse dung on Simon Bolivar's boots.

I'll go back to Jimmy Carter again, I cannot endorse all his methods, Bolivar pushed Spain, an oppressor, out of South America, Chavez was pushing back against a modern day oppressor, american capitalism and american foreign policy and he made a difference. So he was given to rhetoric, no less than your own leader

[excon]

Hello again, tom:

Chill!

I didn't say I admire him.. I'm just telling you what he did.

excon

[smoothy]

Hugo "Dirty Sanchez" Chavez... Nationalized the oil industry.. through outright theft... then kept all the profits for himself... over 2 billion worth... nobody else ever saw a dime.

[paraclete]

Well no doubt there will be somesort of recovery operation

[smoothy]

well no doubt there will be somesort of recovery operation

All of it was in banks outside of Venezuela... in some other Bannana republic... good luck trying. But if another despot takes over.. I hope they refuse to hand it back. Who knows how much of it he spent on himself, family and friends?

I heard what country most of it was in... but forgot which it was. Its in that general region of the world however.

[speechlesstx]

I'll go back to Jimmy Carter again, I cannot endorse all his methods, Bolivar pushed Spain, an oppressor, out of South America, Chavez was pushing back against a modern day oppressor, american capitalism and american foreign policy and he made a difference. So he was given to rhetoric, no less than your own leader

So Rich Lowry was right...

For some, all is forgiven if you hate the rich with a white-hot passion and talk the language of populist redistribution, while wrapping your program in a bow of rancid, paranoid anti-Americanism. Then, every allowance will be made for your thuggery. Everyone will obsess about your colorful and charming personality. And praise you when you’re gone.

Read more: Opinion: Hugo Chávez's cheering section - Rich Lowry - POLITICO.com

[paraclete]

For some, all is forgiven if you hate the rich with a white-hot passion and talk the language of populist redistribution, while wrapping your program in a bow of rancid, paranoid anti-Americanism. Then, every allowance will be made for your thuggery. Everyone will obsess about your colorful and charming personality. And praise you when you're gone.

You know you might be right, I'll have to try it but to get back to the question of whether the Chavez legacy is that he helped the poor
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/03/08/wo...html?hpt=hp_c1

As this piece says

The formula is so simple it makes you wonder why nobody though of it before. After all, a 22-year-old single mother of two in Petare, Chapeu Mangueira, Chimalhuacan or Ciudad Bolivar, doesn't care about macroeconomic policies or free market economies, but about a leader who will make it possible to feed her children tomorrow. And to millions of Venezuelans, that was Hugo Chavez.

That the man was an economic trogladite seems to be a mute point, he help other nations too, but of course he did so in the face of american foreign policy so obviously he will not be eulogised in the north

[speechlesstx]

Oh yeah, he propped up Castro - that's another bright spot on his resume. How much better off would his own people have been had he not shifted so much of their oil wealth to that communist country? You've got it bad, Clete, you'd fit right in here with our anti-American left.

[paraclete]

You've got it bad, Clete, you'd fit right in here with our anti-American left.

Is that anti american or anti right wing capitalist B/S. I make no secret of the fact I don't like your foreign policy settings, You could have done much to lift Cuba but instead you created an enemy who made a wrong choice a long time ago and in your eyes are still the enemy. You have the same view of NK after 60 years. It is no wonder people like Chavez rail against you. The reality is different expressions of political life can exist and even flourish, no one wants or likes the excesses, prove to me there are not excesses in your own society, but proper dialogue rather than belligerence can produce a different result

[ebaines]

It's interesting that after Chavez's 14 years in power that not one of the other major Latin American countries are following his example - not Mexico, not Brazil, not Chile, not Peru not Columbia - none of them. This despite Chavez's vision of a united region and defiance of the US, sweetened with cheap oil given to needy neighbors. It seems the disaster he caused on his country's economy - including rampant inflation, chronic shortages, and the lowest economic growth in the region - is not something others want to emulate. The poverty rate did go down in Venezualea, and that is the main reason for his popularity. But it also went down in other countries and without destroying their economic futures. So his legacy will be limited - which is enough to restore one's faith in the future of the region for those fortunate enough to not live in Venezuela.