Uribe and a third term Part 2
I've done several posts on Uribe's likely push for a third term (here is the last one). Now in an interview Andres Oppenheimer tried to pin him down on the issue, and he refused to answer directly, but his answers (just as past statements) strongly suggested he would.
I told him that I have seen many popular former Latin American presidents, such as Argentina's Carlos Menem and Peru's Alberto Fujimori, lose their way as they got blinded by power. They sought third terms in office, and they ended badly.''Don't worry,'' Uribe said, indicating that it wouldn't happen to him. Comparing himself to a peasant who is used to many hardships and rough roads, he said that ``a hard-working peasant can resist a long and abrupt road without losing his way.''
The guy is from a wealthy family and went to Harvard. Calling himself a peasant is very much like George W. Bush cultivating an image of a simple Texan. But the thing is, Bush is actually stepping down after two terms...
2 comments:
Will Brazil's Lula run for a third term?
http://washingtonbureau.typepad.com/southamerica/2008/04/will-brazils-lu.html
Calling himself a peasant is very much like George W. Bush cultivating an image of a simple Texan. But the thing is, Bush is actually stepping down after two terms...
The fact that any U.S. president won't seek a third term has nothing to do with scruples. It has to do with the fact that presidential term limits are deeply institutionalized within our polity, meaning that any president who sought to change the rules would raise hackles across the spectrum.
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