The “we woulda won if not for those pesky kids” apologetics of the Chavistas at this point are, to be kind, less than compelling. It’s pretty apparent that not only did Chavez lose this one, he lost by much larger margins than were officially reported, and the results were not announced until after representatives of the military had directly confronted Chavez at the CNE (Venezeulan election agency) on election night.

So far the noted discrepancies and the unreported actas total up to around a million votes, versus the 9 million reported. The second “official” total release was over 400,000 votes short for the respective additional actas reported, and CNE is refusing access to the written tallies for comparison. The NO activists are sitting on their own hot tallies, just wanting to hold on to their win, not trusting anyone (as well they shouldn’t) but my sources say the poll tallies indicate higher turnout than officially reported.

You do NOT declare an election “irreversible” with only a 1.3% spread and 14% of the vote still outstanding, nor would Chavez accept such a call without demanding a recount IF it were actually that close with that much of the vote still out. But he did, and CNE did–and the National Guard surrounded the CNE building on election night while Chavez was inside (”for safety reasons”) when CNE did not release results on time.

The supposition that the actual results were much more lopsided is supported by the available evidence.

I’d say that goes for a lot of people around here.  And I don’t except myself.

And I don’t buy your explanation that you were only providing balance because I have never once seen you attempt to “provide balance” the other way. The ideological direction of your comments is very predictable.

It would be nice though if you could respond to me sans what has become an obsessive attack upon my person. Your first paragraph was a good attempt to begin a larger discussion, which I may have participated in. The second one leaves me with little desire  to do so…

There is no contradiction between the notion that many of Chavez’ supporters didn’t show up (perhaps granting Hugo president-for-life powers with dictatorial decree powers attached was a bridge too far even for them) and the notion that Chavez may have tried to steal the vote after their failure to turn out became apparent.

It is fascinating, Jim, that after you repeatedly lecture people about partisan sources and withholding judgment, you keep being shown embracing highly partisan sources (the one you cite is nothing other than PURE pro-Chavez propaganda, it doesn’t even pretend otherwise) and spinning wildly whenever the story of the day doesn’t fit your ideological biases…