Georgia's richest man runs for country's top job

[dipsydoodle]

UREKI, Georgia (AP) -- Georgia's richest man, billionaire and philanthropist Bidzina Ivanishvili seems to have it all - a head-spinning fortune, the respect of his country and gleaming, art-filled palaces across the globe, including one where zebras and pink flamingoes roam.

What else could he want?

Political power, it turns out, and that has put him on a collision course with President Mikhail Saakashvili - his onetime friend and ally.

Since announcing his ambitions a year ago, Ivanishvili has been stripped of his Georgian citizenship and hit with fines of tens of millions of dollars. But he is undeterred in leading his Georgian Dream party into parliamentary elections next week that he hopes will make him prime minister, set to become the country's most powerful job after legislative changes next year.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GEORGIA_PRESIDENTS_CHALLENGER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-09-26-04-18-00

If we accept for the time being that as stated in the article he is in fact popular with the people then his riches become incidental. He could provide a good alternative to that rogue Saakashvili who only got in using bent elections.

[Laelth]

1. FDR and JFK were quite wealthy.

Wealth certainly does not preclude a person from being liberal.

-Laelth

[pscot]

2. When Joe Kennedy died he was one of the richest men in America

His estate was estimated at $400 million. FDR left an estate of less than $1.5 mllion. There was a $500,000 insurance policy, but that went to the Warm Springs Foundation. During the '40's Eleanor actually earned more money on the lecture circuit and from her newspaper columns than FDR's presidential salary.