When is Kerry going to support democratically-elected Hugo Chavez?

[genius]

This is the fourth (the first being the original election) time Chavez has been democratically elected to the same term. We don't even have an elected President - except Gore. We need Venezuelan democracy here.

[codegreen]

1. after the election? (our election, i mean)

[Feanorcurufinwe]

4. I don't know why you even bother posting such a sensible answer.

[goodhue]

2. when he comes out against goss for cia

not holding my breath

[Classical_Liberal]

3. Probably never

The best we can hope for is silence.

[peacetalksforall]

5. I pray that he doesn't say one more thing about Venezuela or Cuba that

makes me fall into a rage.

[JI7]

6. Chavez does not need Kerry to support him

he only needs Kerry to win.

[genius]

7. Good point

I feel like I am hoping where Kerry is concerned. No one can be as bad as Bush.

[xcmt]

8. Chavez is a hot potato.

He's not a communist, but he has socialist tendencies, and he's friendly with Castro. There's no way Kerry is going to support Chavez, because then the Repubicans can trot out the O'Reilly-style name-calling and push something to the effect of "So Kerry supports a pro-Communist Socialist that's so unpopular in his country that they've forced him through six recall elections?" through the media.

I'm sure the Democrats would, in any other circumstance, love to throw public support behind such a 1) victory of democracy and 2) enemy of American right-wing interests and BigOil. However, he's got too much exploitable baggage. The American public doesn't know anything about Venezuela, so we're particularly ripe for misinformation. I don't trust our media to send out the correct message.

And this clearly sucks. Kerry has the opportunity to oust Bush for attempting to subvert democracy, pandering to oil corporations and the rich, and (the story nobody is talking about) supporting electronic voting, which has already come under fire in Venezuela by the opposition. They have receipts, so it's not a catastrophe. But imagine what our November is going to be like during the Recount of Destiny, without a paper trail.