Reply #63: I am sorry, I just look at both sides of the coin equally.

[Nebraska_Liberal]

This is one of my problems with DU and every other political discussion forum, there person can do no wrong and people continue to legitimize their actions. You give Chavez a pass on openly discussing a very apparent power grab. What if Bush tried this? People here would be outraged, and rightly so. Why dont you tell the mexican people that PAN won there last election and that PRD simply lost? You would not do that because you are more ideologically on the side of PRD.

You will probably counter that there have been reports of election fraud in Mexico, but all of Chavez's elections have been just as disputed. Even the Carter Center has said that one was not operated properly.

The moral of the story is that there is always some yahoo disupting elections, so you have to make a choice: to decide who is right and who is wrong based on ideology, like you do. Or you can look at each instance objectively.

To me, even though I agree with some of Chavez's policies(land reform, ect), if it walks like a duck and quacks it is most likely a duck. If any leader makes it clear that he or she wants to extend his reign of power beyond terms that HE OR SHE AGREED TO, it smells like a power grab and to me stinks.