Setting aside the fact that Hillary's politics aren't good, the polls show that she would be a political liability as a candidate

John Edwards (D-NC) speaks as US Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) listens during the Des Moines Register Democratic Presidential Debate. Edwards, a former senator and ex-running mate to Democrat John Kerry in 2004, is widely viewed as an underdog with a fighting chance in the political race for the White House. (AFP/Pool/File/Andrea Melendez)
By Justin Delacour

Latin America News Review

January 4, 2007

Despite the fact that the purpose of this blog is to review news about Latin America, I've been following the race for the Democratic nomination for a few reasons. The United States is, after all, my country, so I'm concerned about the political direction it is heading. I am concerned about its foreign policies, including its policies towards Latin America, but I'm also concerned about its domestic policies and particularly the level of socio-economic inequality within the United States.

On all of these issues, Hillary Clinton is simply not progressive. A number of articles to which I've linked have noted that Clinton is quite hawkish on foreign policy, and she has also supported policies that have exacerbated economic inequality within the United States. Moreover, Clinton still refuses to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq. In addition, she has provided indications that she is very hostile to the Latin American left.

But let's just set all that aside for a moment. Let's just assume for a moment that Clinton wouldn't be as atrocious as a Republican president on all or most of these issues. Let's assume, for a moment, that the most important thing now is that a Democrat --any Democrat-- win the White House.

Well, even if we assume all that, Clinton still sucks as a candidate. Just look at the head-to-head polls. According to the polls, both John Edwards and Barrack Obama would fair better than Hillary in any head-to-head contest against any of the Republican candidates. In fact, every poll indicates that John McCain would defeat Hillary (whereas Obama runs even with McCain, and two out of three polls suggest that Edwards would beat McCain).

So there you have it, folks. Despite the fact that the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and the party establishment would have us believe that only a hawkish, corporate-funded DLC Democrat can win the presidency, the candidate who best fits that description is the biggest political liability in the race.

And please, don't try to tell me that Hillary will start fairing better in the head-to-head polls once the people see her campaign pitch. Hillary Clinton is a known political commodity in the United States. She was the First Lady of this country for eight years. The people of the United States know who Hillary Clinton is, and the fact of the matter is that they just don't like her all that much.

If Hillary Clinton were really interested in what's best for the country and for the Democratic Party, she would just pull out of the race and help us avert another potential electoral catastrophe.

News Roundup - January 4, 2008

Evo Morales (left), Helene Roux (center) and Danielle Mitterand (right) in Paris in October 2005.

Bolivia - Widow of former French President Francois Mitterrand stands by Morales government (ZNet)

Bolivia - Foreign Investment: Morales looks to "all-time record" (On Global Trends)

Colombia - A test case for Canada’s ‘principled’ role in the Americas (Latin America: Policy and Advocacy)

United States - Edwards says he's underdog who can't be bought (Baltimore Sun)

United States - Reporter of Dow Jones' MarketWatch recognizes that Edwards' populist critique of corporate greed resonates (MarketWatch)

United States - John Edwards' Speech After the Iowa Caucuses (JohnEdwards.com)

United States - Edwards embraces underdog status in New Hampshire (Reuters)

United States - Edwards: New Hampshire voters "not going to be told either by money or the national media what they're supposed to do" (New Hampshire Public Radio)

United States - Mellencamp rallies 'God's Country' to Edwards' side (Baltimore Sun)

United States - Only One Top Dem Will End Iraq Occupation (Alternet)

United States - "It's the War," Says Iowa to Hillary -- And a "Happy Blue Year" To All! ...from Michael Moore (MichaelMoore.com)

Book Review of Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

By Walden Bello

Foreign Policy in Focus

November 12, 2007

Excerpt from book review:

With her ability to combine no-stone-left-unturned investigative reporting with in-depth social analysis, Klein is her generation's David Halberstam, her Shock Doctrine and an earlier book No Logo being on par with The Best and the Brightest and War in a Time of Peace. There is one difference, though: Klein is unashamedly a woman of the left, and this is where her analysis derives both its power and its passion.

The Shock Doctrine traces neoliberalism's rise to dominance to a program set up in the mid-fifties to enable Chilean students to imbibe the radical free-market doctrine being propagated by Milton Friedman and his associates at the University of Chicago. The U of C's economics department was then an oasis of radical free-market thinking in a world dominated by Keynesianism in the United States and Europe and "developmentalism" or desarrollismo in Latin America, with their pragmatic compromises between the state and the market, labor and management, trade and development...

(click here to view entire book review)

Book Review of Dani Rodrik's One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalisation, Institutions and Economic Growth

By Mario Pisani

New Statesman

January 3, 2008

Economists endure a certain professional malaise. The poor record of the dismal science is well documented in popular wisdom, from George Bernard Shaw's cry that all the economists in the world couldn't reach a conclusion, to Harry Truman's wish for a one-handed economist. And in no field of economics is the lack of conclusive advice more noticeable, and regrettable, than in the area of development.

To make this point, Dani Rodrik, professor of international political economy at Harvard University and a leading figure in the debate, invites us early in his book to engage in a thought experiment. Imagine that a Martian visits our planet and tries to square the development record of the past few decades with policy advice given by the international financial institutions and western economists. He would see that many countries which had followed the advice (Latin America) had failed to develop, while others ignored it yet are catching up rapidly (Asia). The visitor would conclude that the advice was wrong. In this collection of essays, covering the recent history of economic growth and challenges of globalisation, Rodrik is almost as scathing as the Martian. But, tellingly, he counters the intuitions of the "globalisers" and the anti-globalisation lobby alike...

(click here to view entire book review)

News Roundup - January 3, 2008

Democratic Presidential candidate and former Senator John Edwards (D-NC) shakes hands as he campaigns in West Des Moines, Iowa, January 2, 2008. (John Gress/Reuters)

TOP STORY - Obama wins Iowa, Edwards looks to edge out Clinton for second place (Associated Press)

Argentina - Positive Rating for Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner (Angus Reid Global Monitor)

Brazil - Brazil Seeks Formula for Continued Growth (Inter Press Service)

Colombia - Hostage Release "Blasted" (Inter Press Service)

United States - Edwards: Campaign Aides Insist He Won't Fizzle After Iowa (The Huffington Post)

United States - John Edwards Endorsed for President by More Than 30 Leading Economists (All American Patriots)

United States - Iowa '08: Mitt Romney Slams John Edwards -- But John Mellencamp Rocks For Him (MTV)

United States - Edwards Reconsidered (Alternet)

Venezuela - OAS welcomes pardon granted by Chavez to political prisoners (Caribbean NetNews)

Venezuela - Venezuela's Hugo Chavez softens tone for 2008 (Reuters)

News Roundup: January 2, 2008

Steelworkers cheer on Democratic presidential candidate and former Senator John Edwards (D-NC) as he campaigns at United Steelworkers Local 164 hall in Des Moines, Iowa, January 1, 2008. REUTERS/John Gress

TOP STORY - Edwards in Iowa: Closing With Class (Time)

Bolivia - Why Bolivia Matters (Foreign in Policy in Focus)

Bolivia - Support for Morales Reaches 56% in Bolivia (Angus Reid Global Monitor)

Paraguay - Is Paraguay Set to be the Next Latin American Country to Lean to the Left? (Council on Hemispheric Affairs)

United States - Obama, Clinton tied in Iowa; Edwards close (Reuters)

United States - Punditocracy shits pants over Edwards' populism (Toronto Star)

United States - Helen Thomas: Where do the candidates stand? (Falls Church News-Press)

News Roundup: January 1, 2008

"Edwards is at least highlighting day after day that the issue is who controls our country: big business or the people?" - Ralph Nader

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate and former Senator John Edwards (D-NC) campaigns at Buena Vista University Science Center Atrium in Storm Lake, Iowa December 31, 2007. REUTERS/John Gress (UNITED STATES)

TOP STORY - Edwards Continues to Amp Up The Rhetoric (Washington Post)

Brazil - Lula Says Brazil's Accelerated Growth Program to Generate Jobs (Bloomberg)

Latin America - Some questions for 2008 (Two Weeks Notice)

Mexico - On the Continued Centrality of the Zapatista Movement After 14 Years (ShiftShapers)

United States - Democrats: What is the Meaning of Change? (AlterNet)

United States - Nader throws support to Edwards (Politico)

World - Victories in 2007 (Huffington Post)

Charges Fly Over Failure to Release 3 in Colombia

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe delivers a speech concerning the release of three hostages, including a toddler, that FARC rebels said they will release, at Apiay Military Base in Villavicencio, department of Meta, Colombia. Colombian rebels Monday said they would not now be able to release three hostages as planned, accusing the Colombian government of failing to guarantee the guerrillas' safety. (AFP/Mauricio Duenas)

By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

New York Times

December 31, 2007

[Editor's Note: Why in the hell did Uribe go to the staging area for the hostage transfer in the first place? The FARC had always been very clear that it wasn't going to release the hostages to the Uribe government.]

RIO de JANEIRO — A Venezuelan-led mission to release three hostages held by a Colombian rebel group seemed to be breaking down late Monday, with the Colombian government and the rebels accusing each other of sabotaging the operation.

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who has been negotiating the hostages’ freedom, read a statement from the rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, in which the guerrillas accused the government of President Álvaro Uribe of Colombia of not meeting the security conditions agreed upon to free the hostages.

Mr. Chávez, who had gathered an international cast of diplomats and even the film director Oliver Stone to observe the operation, said Mr. Uribe had sabotaged his rescue plan. On Monday, diplomats from seven countries who had come for the transfer were starting to leave the staging area, including Néstor Kirchner, Argentina’s former president, and the French ambassador to Venezuela, said Luis Alvis, the Venezuelan ambassador to Colombia.

“Uribe went to dynamite the third phase of this operation,” Mr. Chávez said, referring to Mr. Uribe’s arrival on Monday at the staging area for the transfer. He vowed that “the operation will continue,” adding that efforts to secure the hostages’ freedom were “ongoing.”

(click here to view entire report)

Hostage Rescue in Colombia Collapses

U.S. film director Oliver Stone talks to a journalist, unseen, at a military base in Villavicencio, Colombia, Monday, Dec. 31, 2007. A mission to retrieve three rebel-held hostages from Colombia's jungles was on standby Monday, with observers waiting for the guerrillas to give the pickup point's coordinates to Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Associated Press

December 31, 2007

Excerpt from report:

"Shame on Colombia, shame on Uribe," Oliver Stone, the American filmmaker, told The Associated Press shortly before boarding one of three Venezuelan jets carrying the observers back to Caracas. Stone, who was invited by Chavez to document the handover, added "the FARC have no motive not to release these hostages."

(click here to view entire report)

News Roundup: December 31, 2007

Democratic presidential hopeful and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards shakes hands as he arrives for a rally in Boone, Iowa, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2007. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

[Editor's Note: Still waiting on the Colombia hostage release. On another note, it is a stretch to say that John Edwards is the "The Great Left Hope for 2008" (as the article below says), but he is the first FDR-style populist to be within striking distance of the Democratic nomination since the 1980s. And his rhetoric is refreshing. No doubt Edwards gives Wall Street the jitters, and that is precisely why progressive Democrats should vote for him. Hillary and Obama just don't have the credibility to match up.]

TOP STORY - John Edwards: The Great Left Hope for 2008 (The Progressive Economics Forum)

Brazil - Brazil's president pledges massive spending on infrastructure (Associated Press)

Mexico - THE VIOLIN—The Evening Class Interview With Francisco Vargas (The Evening Class)

Venezuela - Chavez pardons those accused of coup (Associated Press)

One more reason to bash the New York Times

Conservative William Kristol becomes NY Times columnist

Sat Dec 29, 2007 10:13pm EST

[Editor's Note: Despite the fact that the New York Times has never had a leftist as a regular columnist, it somehow feels the need to compensate for its liberalism by hiring an ultra-rightist lunatic. This sordid hiring just goes to show that the New York Times' Clintonite corporate liberalism is much closer to the political right than to the left.]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - William Kristol, a prominent conservative pundit and magazine editor, has signed on as a columnist for The New York Times, a publication he has often sharply criticized, the newspaper announced on Saturday.

Kristol, 55, is the editor and co-founder of The Weekly Standard, a Washington political magazine with a strongly conservative viewpoint.

He regularly appears on Fox News, and served as Vice President Dan Quayle's chief of staff during the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

Kristol, a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq, will write his first weekly column for the January 7 issue, the Times said.

Just last year Kristol promoted the idea that the federal government prosecute the newspaper for disclosing details about its program tracking international financial transactions. Prior to that he wrote that the paper was "irredeemable," the Times noted in its announcement.

The Times is owned by The New York Times Company, a leading media company with 2006 revenues of $3.3 billion including the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe and 15 other dailies.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

News Roundup: December 30, 2007

Garbage pile-up in Caracas (El Nacional)

[Editor's Note: I'm still waiting on the Colombia hostage release. On another note, Reuters reports on the garbage problem in Caracas but somehow can't manage to give us a photo of it. (Perhaps a garbage-strewn Caracas alleyway is not sufficiently chic for Reuters' crew).]

TOP STORY - Chavez vows to put "revolution" back on track (Reuters)

Colombia - Foreign envoys ready for Colombia hostage release (Agence France Press)

World - Multilateralism gains momentum amid new developments in world relations, economic growth (Xinhua)