That's not a campaign launch, that's a rancho en llamas!

OK, y’all will say I’m biased against UNT, but seriously, this is Pablo Pérez’s campaign launch? I’m sorry, but that’s very weak. It’s not just that the visuals,...

OK, y’all will say I’m biased against UNT, but seriously, this is Pablo Pérez’s campaign launch?

I’m sorry, but that’s very weak.

It’s not just that the visuals, with the collar de micrófonos, are awful. Leave aside the fact that he waited a full day before speaking. It’s that his strategic frame is…hopeless.

Decentralization? That’s what his campaign is about? Vote for me so governors can administer the highways again? Really!?

A campaign launch is one of those few times when a resource-starved candidate can count on generous free media, a key juncture where you get to define your strategic frame, your narrative setting out what your campaign is about.

Pablo Pérez’s campaign is about some bureaucratic category that looms large in governors’ horizons and very small in voters’, a distant abstraction with only the most roundabout, tenuous link to the things that really matter in people’s lives. It’s the kind of framing that matters to someone – who really enjoys being a Governor!

I mean, really? Democracy is circling the drain, a neo-communist dictatorship is on the verge of consolidating itself for good, a kleptocratic ruling elite has lost any sense of restraint about pillaging the nation’s resources, a fundamentalist sectarian cult of personality is gobbling up the body politic, and your basic pitch to the voters is…decentralization?

This is going to be a cakewalk for Capriles.