Chavez, Obama, Obama, Chavez...What's the difference?...

"He campaigned against private sector economic mismanagement, and the 'harsh realities' of global capitalism. He pledged during his campaign to end corruption in both the government, and the private sector. He campaigned against private sector economic mismanagement, and the 'harsh realities' of global capitalism. He pledged during his campaign to end corruption in both the government, and the private sector. After he took office, he claimed that he had 'inherited' the worst economic situation in his country's recent history. And then, the new President sought to consolidate his power. Once privately-owned enterprises became government-owned and operated entities, and were 'restructured' so as to become, essentially, 'workers' cooperatives.' Not surprisingly, unemployment remained persistently high, even as the new was implementing his much-celebrated 'reform' measures. And while private citizens had to struggle with the worsening economic conditions, government officials nonetheless continued to exert increasing levels of control over the nation's wealth, and also continued to enrich themselves from that wealth, despite the suffering of 'the governed.' Does this seem like a description of the first 11 months of the Obama Presidency? What I've described here thus far portrays the conduct of President Obama and members of his Administration fairly succinctly. Yet, this is actually a description of the ascendency of Hugo Chavez, the once freely elected President and now rapidly-morphing-into-a-dictator of Venezuela."

-- Columnist Austin Hill