Thursday, June 05, 2008
Stupid Chavistas and an opposition that doesn't even believe its own polls
Continuing on from the post of the other day we see that when it comes to economics the Venezuelan government is indeed clueless. Witness this advertisement:
Here the government brags that Venezuela grew 4.8% last quarter while the U.S. only grew .1% and the European Union 1.4%.
Where to begin on this one? Well, lets even ignore the little details like the U.S. is practically in a recession because a real estate bubble just burst whereas Venezuela has record high oil prices that should be propelling its economy forward.
Lets just consider the fact that both Europe and the United States are already developed areas where the great majority of the population has a very high material standard of living whereas in Venezuela most people are, by comparison, poor.
So wouldn't it behoove Venezuela to grow at a very high rate for several decades to try to catch up? And isn't it a little disconcerting that they can't manage to grow at a high rate even with the one thing that dominates their economy going through the roof?
Apparently not to the morons in charge of government propaganda.
Now to the opposition.
Did the example set by the PSUV inspire them to set up their own primaries to choose candidates? No.
Does the fact that the constitution actually REQUIRES primaries make them decide to hold them? No.
But they have come up with an alternative method. When not making back room deals to pick candidates they will be using three pollsters to determine who is most popular and select that person as the candidate.
Cool. Lets just abolish elections and go by opinion polls!!!!
Anyways, what is even funnier about this is who they decided to choose as the polling firms - Ivad, Consultoras 21, and Datanalisis. If you haven't followed Venezuela very closely you might not know this but at least two of those firms, Ivad and Datanalisis, have often been accused of being "Chavista", or incompentant, or overly friendly to the government by virtue of their often releasing polls showing that Chavez is highly popular.
Further, strident opposition pollsters Keller and Associates and Hinterlaces, who often get huge play in the opposition media for their polls showing Chavez is generally unpopular and has declining support, are left out.
In other words, for making propaganda firms like Keller and Hinterlaces are fine, but when the opposition needs results it can depend on it turns to the firms which they have disparaged for years for being "pro-Chavez".
In summary, at least some Chavistas are stupid enough that they believe the government line about the economy being fine and are willing to publish advertisements revealing their stupidity and gullibility.
The opposition on the other hand may lie a lot and make a lot of propaganda but when push comes to shove they aren't so dumb that they actually believe their own propaganda.
Chalk one up for the opposition.
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Here the government brags that Venezuela grew 4.8% last quarter while the U.S. only grew .1% and the European Union 1.4%.
Where to begin on this one? Well, lets even ignore the little details like the U.S. is practically in a recession because a real estate bubble just burst whereas Venezuela has record high oil prices that should be propelling its economy forward.
Lets just consider the fact that both Europe and the United States are already developed areas where the great majority of the population has a very high material standard of living whereas in Venezuela most people are, by comparison, poor.
So wouldn't it behoove Venezuela to grow at a very high rate for several decades to try to catch up? And isn't it a little disconcerting that they can't manage to grow at a high rate even with the one thing that dominates their economy going through the roof?
Apparently not to the morons in charge of government propaganda.
Now to the opposition.
Did the example set by the PSUV inspire them to set up their own primaries to choose candidates? No.
Does the fact that the constitution actually REQUIRES primaries make them decide to hold them? No.
But they have come up with an alternative method. When not making back room deals to pick candidates they will be using three pollsters to determine who is most popular and select that person as the candidate.
Cool. Lets just abolish elections and go by opinion polls!!!!
Anyways, what is even funnier about this is who they decided to choose as the polling firms - Ivad, Consultoras 21, and Datanalisis. If you haven't followed Venezuela very closely you might not know this but at least two of those firms, Ivad and Datanalisis, have often been accused of being "Chavista", or incompentant, or overly friendly to the government by virtue of their often releasing polls showing that Chavez is highly popular.
Further, strident opposition pollsters Keller and Associates and Hinterlaces, who often get huge play in the opposition media for their polls showing Chavez is generally unpopular and has declining support, are left out.
In other words, for making propaganda firms like Keller and Hinterlaces are fine, but when the opposition needs results it can depend on it turns to the firms which they have disparaged for years for being "pro-Chavez".
In summary, at least some Chavistas are stupid enough that they believe the government line about the economy being fine and are willing to publish advertisements revealing their stupidity and gullibility.
The opposition on the other hand may lie a lot and make a lot of propaganda but when push comes to shove they aren't so dumb that they actually believe their own propaganda.
Chalk one up for the opposition.
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