Digby wondered about the Bush Administration's growing belligerence towards Venezuela's controversial leader Hugo Chavez. Here's my comment:
My understanding was that Chavez captured people's imagination with his original coup attempt (1992). Afterwards he gave a very brief televised statement ACCEPTING BLAME for the episode and went to jail for it: no one in Venezuelan politics had ever accepted BLAME for anything as long as anyone could remember! Startled Venezuelans were intrigued by the guy.
Chavez understands television well. He has a gonzo call-in TV show where he accepts calls in his sweats from just about anyone - kind-of like Rush, but much more intelligent, and with more clout. I call it highly-effective.
The left-right divide in Venezuela is like the red-blue divide in the U.S., except even starker. Some of his enemies were just made to hate by any feeling person. Many of Chavez' enemies are South American allies of Bush. If you hate Bush, it's hard not to like Chavez.
Like the other commenters say, and despite all its embarrassingly hagiographic simplicities, 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised' is really an eye-opening movie. It's Bush v. Gore, but with guns. See it if you can...
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