Suddenly, it's Chávez playing into our narrative

Capriles has spent the last few months working to portray Chávez as out-of-touch with “the concerns of people like you”: a guy who let power get to his...

To insanity…and beyond!

Capriles has spent the last few months working to portray Chávez as out-of-touch with “the concerns of people like you”: a guy who let power get to his head and now spends more time worrying about geostrategy and saving humanity than working to fix the pothole on your street or the leaky roof in your kid’s school. Capriles’s strategy in this regard is not subtle. His analysis is that swing voters are micro-local voters, and so you get them by pitching yourself as the guy to look after their micro-local problems, and the other guy as a Space Cadet.

Right on cue, the other guy launches a surprises satellite. A satellite!  

It’s like he positively relishes the role Capriles has carved out for him.

Set aside for the moment the absurd conceit that you can go shopping for National Sovereignty on the international market. Could you think of a more powerful visual representation of misplaced, distant priorities than that photo?!

I mean, if China isn’t far enough removed from your day-to-day concerns, space is.

[Hat tip: you know who you are…]