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Venezuela Revisited: Keeping It In Context

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JOE O'NEILL

Tribune Columnist

Published: May 22, 2008

My recent Venezuela column in The Tampa Tribune prompted a prominent response from a local Venezuelan activist who took exception to some points I made.

Fair enough.

On this subject, I'm not an expert on anything but my own first-hand impressions based on what I saw -- from health clinics to brazen street crime -- and to whom I spoke -- from Chavez acolytes to scornful opposition.

In responding, I want to underscore what my agenda for traveling to Venezuela for a fortnight was NOT.

It was not to presume to learn enough to write a definitive treatise. Nor was it to disparage anyone forced into expatriatation by a socialist autocrat. I can never know what it's like to walk in the shoes of anyone who feels orphaned from their motherland.

What my agenda WAS -- was two-fold:

1) To look beyond the understandably easy caricature and demonization of President Hugo Chavez and get some sense of what on-site Venezuelans saw in him.

2) To see what a "Bolivarian Revolution" looked like up close and personal.

My conclusions:

1) Chavez, who's mestizo, literally looks like so many historically disenfranchised Venezuelans. He induces a visceral, father-figure empathy. And his anti-imperialist, re-distributionist populism plays to their plights and hopes.

Key projects dealing with access to health care and education, for example, seem quite welcome, however imperfectly implemented.

In the highly divisive political climate that is Venezuela, Chavez plays the polarizing role of "Kingfish" with oil. Petro to many Venezuelans; snake to others.

2) Venezuela, as I had noted, looks like it's in the midst of a hybrid upheaval, rather than a zero-sum revolution that was the Fidel Castro Cuban model. It has too many entrenched interests, including self-perpetuating bureaucracies and bourgeoisie consumer tastes, to do a dialectical 180 – no matter how embedded the historic inequities or how horrific the slums surrounding Caracas.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't want Chavez for my president. But if his socialista siren song plays well with a majority of Venezuelans, then it's their sovereign call to elect or recall him. They have done the former and tried the latter.

Even a high U.S. Embassy official, who didn't want to be quoted by name and obviously finds a lot not to like about the Chavez government, made a relevant concession. Chavez, he said, was "clearly not a dictator. I probably would have voted for him myself at first."

And one other point -- actually unsolicited advice -- about Venezuelan and Cuban activists demonstrating together in Tampa as protestors-in-arms.

Strategically, this is not a good idea for Venezuelans. The Cuban-exile cause still entails an unyielding approach on normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. Indeed, it is specifically associated with a hard-line stand on the counterproductive economic embargo, which is hardly in the best interests of the U.S.

For Venezuelans trying to make the case for increased U.S. leverage against Chavez, this is not the geopolitical company you want to keep, however understandable the animus is toward the Chavez and Castro governments.

Obama-Clinton Not The Ticket

Amazingly enough, media speculation remains rife about "dream team" scenarios that could yield a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton Democratic ticket.

As has been well documented – and orchestrated – Obama's allure, aside from being intelligent and articulate, is his avatar-of-hope and change-agent appeal at a time of consummate cynicism.

If he were to put Clinton on the ticket, he morphs into yet another hypocritically pragmatic politician. Actually, he'd be worse, because of the level of inspiration and aspiration he's induced. Clinton, the princess of pander and blatant political calculation, is also the personification of Washington-insider entitlement.

Obama can't load all that baggage on the ticket – including assistant vice president Bill Clinton -- and retain any prospect of appealing to the electorate's desire for change, let alone long dormant idealism. Plus, he's outnumbered in a key inner circle.

Moreover, would Obama really want somebody who would be to the vice presidency what Vladimir Putin is to the prime ministry of Russia? Or who, in her heart of hearts, prefers that he actually lose in November -- thus validating all those self-fulfilling jeremiads about him not being the best candidate to defeat John McCain? And thus ushering in her de facto 2012 presidential run?

Recall why few observers really thought John Kennedy was rooting for Adlai Stevenson in 1956.

Local insider Frank Sanchez of Tampa, who heads Obama's national Hispanic fundraising campaign, is among those dismissing the notion of a spot for Clinton on an Obama ticket. Sanchez likes Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn. His dark horse veep candidate: former Florida Gov. and Sen. Bob Graham.

Announcer Offense At FSU

When Florida State University recently fired its popular (football) radio color analyst Peter Tom Willis, the reason was no secret.

Willis, a member of the FSU Sports Hall of Fame, had become too critical of the 'Noles, who have fallen from their seemingly permanent perch among the country's elite programs. Willis cited some coaching inadequacies, notably those of offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden, Bobby Bowden's son.

The ouster of Willis sparked a debate sometimes phrased as "Should Announcers Be Biased?" What it should have prompted was a realistic acknowledgement of what a home-team announcer's role is.
It's several-fold.

* To objectively analyze what happened and why it happened.

* To subjectively play the fan surrogate and root for the good guys.

* To identify with the team without devolving into the tacky, third person plural "we." Sorry, Gene Deckerhoff, (FSU and the Bucs) and "legendary" Larry Munson (Georgia). But it's bush league. And a more fire-able offense, frankly, than characterizing – as Willis did – Jeff Bowden's unimaginative and predictable offense as "a high school offense" – although Plant High should have been insulted.

Joe O'Neill is a South Tampa writer and can be contacted at Moesez@AOL.com or www.opinionstogoonline.com.

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