Red All Over

Chavez wins...

... and in a bit of a landslide. I'm still kind of agnostic about the guy (though not towards the opposition; they're scum).

But I do think Kevin Drum makes an important point:

It's one thing to denounce Chávez's methods, which are indeed incendiary and authoritarian, but it's quite another to approve of a military coup as a way of removing him from office, and this is one reason that I'm less than convinced that the neocon devotion to democracy promotion is genuine. Everybody says they're in favor of democracy, but it only means something if you support it even when the winner is someone you loathe. If neocons weren't willing to denounce a military coup in Venezuela two years ago, what are the odds that they'll continue sticking up for democracy in Iraq if the majority there turns out to be hostile to the U.S. — as is likely to be the case? Pretty slim, I'd say.