Chavez wins

So Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez won again, this time in a landslide, 61-38% over his opponent Manuel Rosales.

According to jwharrison, Chavez plans to change the constitution to remove the term limits provision which prevents him from running again in 2012.

No matter who seeks to do this in any country it's unsettling. I will give him this: he did express his desire to change the constitution before the election, giving the people some chance to remove him before he settles in.

Upon declaring victory, Chavez made the predictable pronouncements: "It’s another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world... Down with imperialism! We need a new world!"

I'll leave the trenchant analysis for my colleague Josh Holland, but I do want to point out one thing for those who overemphasize Chavez's Iran/Syria relations. Chavez is also fairly cozy with Israel.

Although it was widely reported during the Israel/Lebanon war that Chavez made disparaging remarks about Israel, the real story was quite a bit different. You might say that those who wanted Chavez to be anti-Israel were cherrypicking from his comments.

What he really said was careful, measured and, ultimately, very politic...