Argentina poll sees Kirchners return from oblivion

[Judi Lynn]

Argentina poll sees Kirchners return from oblivion
President Cristina Kirchner's approval rating has doubled in past year – but critics warn first couple are creating a dynasty
guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 September 2010 18.47 BST

A year ago, Cristina Kirchner crashed into a mid-term crisis that threatened her survival as Argentina's first elected woman president. Robbed of a congressional majority in legislative elections and plagued by a hostile press, farm strikes and protests over high inflation, the "new Evita" was written off as a lame duck destined for political oblivion. But like Evaita and her husband, General Juan Perón, co-founders of the Perónist party nearly 70 years ago, Cristina and her husband, Néstor, thrive on adversity.

Overcoming a collapse in approval ratings to under 20%, the Kirchners now seem poised to win a third successive presidential election – something not even the Peróns achieved.

"I have never seen a case before of an Argentine president bouncing back in the polls like this," said Eduardo Fidanza of the Poliarquía polling company.

An unexpected economic recovery fuelled by government spending has helped double the president's rating to just under 40%, which is considered enough to win presidential elections set for October 2011.

After stalling last year, economic growth is predicted to grow by 8.5% this year. Tax revenue is up, and shopping malls are full despite inflation estimated at around 25%.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/20/argentina-poll-kirchner-return-cristina

[Peace Patriot]

1. Cristina Fernandez's popularlty is clearly linked to LEFTIST policies!

The predicted growth rate for Argentina, mentioned in this article, is astonishing--8.5%! This is clearly the result of anti-corpo/fascist, anti-Wall Street, anti-"neoliberal," leftist STIMULUS policies, like those ultimately followed by our own FDR (and which Paul Krugman and others have criticized Obama for NOT following sufficiently for economic recovery).

Augustín Rossi, head of the Kirchner bloc in Argentina's lower house says it all: "This economic growth will mean greater social inclusion and more jobs."

The corpo-fascist press in Argentina, and here--who apparently take their cue from CIA scenarios--underestimated Cristina Fernandez, both personally and politically, as they have done to other leaders in the region (notably, Hugo Chavez). The reason for this is that they are writing narratives of leftist decline that they hope to make come true with propaganda techniques and other psyops, dirty tricks, sabotage and worse. They repeat failures or mistakes of these leaders, or normal, typical problems of government in these countries, OVER AND OVER AND OVER again--and, of course, they also just make shit up--in order to influence public opinion. They don't really want things in these countries to work out for the best, to benefit most people. They want multinational corporations, the super-rich and war profiteers to be running the government and to be benefitting their own. Thus, they are NOT reporting on REALITY. They are inventing STORY LINES. They are filling in the blanks of pre-written outcomes.

This has never been clearer than in their failure to report ANY of the accomplishments of the Chavez government in Venezuela--some of which have been remarkable (such as cutting poverty in half, and creating sustained economic growth for five straight years, at 10% levels). They ignore all this, headline every problem they can find (or make up), and then, when Chavez wins yet another election with nearly 60% of the votes, they resort to that old rightwing shibboleth, that he's "just buying" the support of the poor with poverty programs. (Duh.)

They also ignore both U.S. interference and traitorous behavior by the local rightwing forces--such as the oil bosses' lockout in Venezuela and the rich landowners' "strike" in Argentina. In other words, these leftist governments have to fight uphill for social programs, for improvement for the vast poor majority, for an economy that benefits everyone. They have one hand tied behind their backs--by the corpo-fascist press, by rightwing political saboteurs--and still they succeed.

But you wouldn't know the CONTEXT from the accounts you read in the corpo-fascist press. Cristina Fernandez has doubled her lead despite very kind of sabotage against her administration--including at least one CIA caper out of Miami, featuring a guy named "Guido" who claimed that he was carrying $700,000 to Cristina Fernandez in her first presidential campaign, on behalf of Hugo Chavez. She succeeds despite crap like this because her policies benefit the majority, and because she is a strong person and a very good president.

[Judi Lynn]

2. She has been steadfast, didn't waver, and went about her business.

She has exercised amazing self-control, while they threw everything they could contrive against her, starting their assau wlt even before she was elected, just because they realized her polling showed she was going to win beyond all doubt.

They merely hoped to be able to undermine her reputation well enough to be able to bring her down during her Presidency.

It's great these facts have gotten out, somehow! Her record is wonderful. Their efforts have failed, after all, and it wasn't for lack of trying.

Now they're trying to paint the couple as the Perons. That's a hot one, isn't it?

How can they EVER expect anyone human to match the murderous, insane maliciousness of their very own right-wing fascist military dictatorship which tortured and murdered its way to slaughtering more than 30,000 citizens of Argentina, anyway?

They will NEVER be able to paint ANYONE as fiendish as right-wingers on a rampage, like their own right-wing filthy death machine.

[bherrera]

4. More likely linked to increasing price of commodities

People vote for the current government when the economy does well, and vote against it when the economy does poorly. The economy of Argentina does well because the price of food commodities is increasing, and they sell commodities. The reason why president Obama is not doing so well in the USA is the slow economic growth, caused by the Bush economic crisis. The reason why the Venezuelan president suffers from lower popularity is the econommic problem they have in Venezuela, called stagflation. It is very simple.

[bemildred]

3. Or it could be that the polls were horseshit all along. nt

[bherrera]

5. Polls were good

And this is the reason why the Kirchner dinasty lost control of the Congress. I assume you do not think those elections were falsified.

[bemildred]

6. Polls are horseshit.

I did not question the election results.

[bherrera]

7. The polls and the elections agreed

But the polls and elections did agree.

Polls are more difficult to apply in a repressive regime. For example, it has been pointed out that, in a socialist command society such as the Soviet Union or Cuba, the use of polling is not useful because people are afraid their answers will be used by the state to attack them for the beliefs they express. This means they will answer with what they consider is the official answer.

One interesting statistic I read recently. When the German Democratic Republic collapsed, 95 % of the Communist party members did not join the new communist party created within the unified german state. This tells us these "communists" had joined the party because they saw it as a thing they should do to eat better. But inside they had no belief in communism. If this applied to party members in the GDR, then it also applies to the common man in these type of socialist or fascist states. I assume the same thing happened in Argentina when the military dictators were rulers, a poll taken would show more support for those guys than the people really felt.

But polls taken in a free state, such as Argentina is today, are more reliable. And this means the Kirchners are gaining popularity. And this is probably caused by the rise in commodity prices as the world economy recovers from the Bush economic crisis. Most countries have recovered well, except for Greece and Spain in Europe, and Haiti and Venezuela in Latin America.

[bemildred]

8. They both showed the Kirchners losing support.

The elections were an accurate reflection of the electorate (I assume, when ruling parties lose, it gives credibility to elections), the polls are inaccurate commercially sold propaganda tools. It is babble to refer to the Kirchners as a "dynasty".

[bemildred]

9. Are you asserting that the KIrchners or their party only got 20% of the vote?

Or even only 40%? And if not, how is the "approval rating" an accurate reflection of anything at all?