Well, Hugo Chavez won fairly...

[Archae]

And everything looks good, even his opponent has gracefully conceded.

I'm glad to see this, it makes a welcome change from the either the far-leftists or the far-rightists.

BUT...

How much longer will Hugo Chavez be president, with his cancer?
And then what?

[Panasonic]

1. Yup - even Jimmy Carter said Venezuelan elections

are actually one of the best.

I think he did win it fairly.

[regnaD kciN]

2. Want to bet that President Romney (God forbid)...

...sends in the CIA to organize a coup, just like Chile on 1973?

I can imagine people like John Bolton chomping at the bit to "reassert our sphere of influence in the hemisphere."

[malaise]

12. Bush attempted a coup against Chavez and it backfired big time

I dare Rmoney to mention Venezuela so we can remind them of that big flop coup.

[tama]

3. Another 6 years.

The cancer has been cured. Sure, anything can always happen. But most likely after six years another election, who knows what then? AFAIK this is so far the most radical reformist socialist revolution and I wish the experiment goes well.

[Luminous Animal]

4. According to the LA Times, only due to poor folks who don't know what's good for them...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez apparently won reelection by a convincing margin Sunday, with allegiance among poor voters to his socialist revolution trumping dissatisfaction with a flaccid economy, rising crime and an increasingly polarized society.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/10/venezuela-election-president-hugo-chavez.html

[David__77]

5. Well if he dies, whoever is vice president takes over.

And I'd like to be wrong, but I suspect that if his health further deteriorated, he would appoint his brother Adan vice president. I have nothing in particular against him, but the family thing is a bit troubling. It reeks of small circle politics. I'm sure it would be argued that expediency trumps everything...

[Zorra]

6. Hopefully President Chavez will groom a successor.

I'm so glad he won again, although I had little doubt he would.

[pa28]

7. The important point is that Chavez won fairly and by a wide margin.

When it comes to Venezuela I've really gotten used to making my own judgments rather than relying on analysis from mainstream news sources.

Based on conventional wisdom in our own media we were supposed to believe that Chavez would lose the 2004 referendum. We were supposed to believe that he was on his deathbed in June. Earlier today we heard that Capriles was going to win the election based on some sketchy "exit polls".

I don't know if you saw Chavez' victory speech tonight but he struck me as a guy who was in a pretty rude state of good health.

[former-republican]

8. Is he a good guy?

I thought he was pretty bad on human rights., censorship of the media .etc...

Why are we glad he won?

Honest question.

[sabrina 1]

10. Because he Is a good guy. What you thought is what the Western Media

wants you to think by spreading propaganda for which millions is spent. The reason the Western Powers hate him is because he is an FDR type Democrat when it comes to social programs for women, for children, for the poor. And he believes in spending Venezuela's oil money on Education, Healthcare etc. We live in a country where to do these things, to use Oil Revenues for the PEOPLE, is a MORTAL SIN.

But his own people know better. In Latin America he is extremely popular because of his policies, and because he has helped the whole region get out from under the Corporate Powers that kept the region under oppression with US Backed Right Wing Dictators for so long.

We would love him if he was a Right Wing dictator. Our Corporate media predicted he would lose because that is what we want. We want Venezuela's Oil and Chavez thinks it belongs to the Venezuelan people. What a concept. He hasn't learned that it is OUR Oil, just like Iraq's.

[Vidar]

9. Viva Chavez!

[cali]

11. I just couldn't be comfortable with one person

being president for 20 years. Or anything more than 12. I don't care who they are, how wonderful they may be. It's an institutional problem for a host of reasons.

[Archae]

13. Even FDR?