Economic Emaciation
So it seems that “Axis-of-Evil Runner-Up” Robert Mugabe is up for re-election.
Hooray Democracy!
Regular readers (all 3 of you – thanks Mom) will note that I am a big fan of democracy (and, especially elections).
But if this guy wins. Even if it can be proven that it was free and fair (and it won’t be free or fair, much less prove anything), what Zimbabwe really needs is a bullet between Robert Mugabe’s eyes.
Seriously.
This man is responsible for taking a country with incredible prospects for the continent of Africa and instead producing the most horrific thugocracy the modern world has seen.
One might argue that the Zanu-PF party would just replace him with some other ruthless tyrant. Fair enough. But at least there’s a remote chance the new ruthless tyrant might not be as poor an administrator.
This guy kicked out foreign media because they were biased against him. No shit. How on earth could anyone in their right mind not be?
Good luck Zimbabwe – I hope for your sake the thugs in charge of fixing this election screw it up as much as they’ve screwed up everything else.
4th Party NDP, Urban Conservatives and the Big Liberal Victory™
Notwithstanding the love-in with the shoe-in candidates in Toronto, there are a few other stories here that I think are far more substantial.
A week before e-day, I was on the phone with a well-connected Conservative strategist who, in my opinion, knows everything. I asked that person, point blank, “what’s going to happen in Vancouver and Saskatchewan?” The answer: “we will lose by a wide margin in Vancouver and Saskatchewan is too close to call.”
What a difference a week makes: Vancouver-Quadra was a genuine nail-biter (a few times showing the Conservative candidate ahead, at one time showing the Liberals ahead by over a thousand, then finishing 151 votes ahead).
Vancouver-Quadra? Isn’t this the same riding we lost last election by over 20 points? No story here! Trailing 20% and 0.6% are pretty much one and the same.
And Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River went from a 67 vote lead by the Liberals to a 1700ish vote lead for the Conservatives (who were almost at the half-the-vote mark).
And this was a big night for Dion and the Liberals because his shoe-ins sailed in as expected!? Come on Dion — time to call an election!
Wasn’t it telling when Dion strode up to the stage with Bob Rae, riding his coat-tails the whole way. And who gave the better speech? Seriously. What sort of Liberal Party do we have now that the leader is riding the coat-tails of Bob Rae?!
But let’s not try to embarrass Dion too much (he’s perfectly capable of doing this himself). Let’s switch to the NDP for a second.
Why did CTV have an NDP strategist on their panel? Maybe they should have included a Green Party strategist instead (if there are such people).
The Green Party beat the NDP in one riding by 241 votes, was only 36 votes behind in another and 272 votes behind in a third.
The interesting thing about the NDP and the Green Party is that they always claim (correctly) that they get votes from almost every region of the country, and that the “spread-out” nature of this prevents them from getting elected in alot of seats.
The difference is that the NDP used to always be the clear third-party, and the Green Party was barely more than fringe. Maybe not anymore? Was this a one-time protest vote for the Greens, or is there something more at work here?
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