From Para Justicia y Libertad!:
Congratulations to Cristina Fernández de Kirchner who has become the first woman to be elected president in Argentina’s history. Kirchner, 54, is the wife of current President of Argentina, Néstor Kirchner and a former senator for Buenos Aires Province. In the Oct, 2007 general election, Mrs. Kirchner, she ran for president of Argentina, representing the ruling Front for Victory party, a center-left Peronist party.
Fernández is the second woman to be elected leader of a South American nation in two years, after Michelle Bachelet, who became Chile’s president last year. […]
Her election extends the trend of left-leaning elected governments in Latin America, although she is more moderate than the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez. Mrs Kirchner is expected to maintain her husband’s friendly relations with Chavez.
Fernández has vowed to continue the work of her husband after winning a presidential election widely seen as a referendum on his economic policies. She has fiercely rejected the pro-market policies of the 1990s, which she blames for the 2001 crisis.
It looks like this is a wave spreading across the Americas that might come to the United States sooner rather than later.
I’m sure congratulatory telexes from RedState and Free Republic are forthcoming.
Following its usual pattern of abysmally failing to report actual news, CNN’s commentary yesterday focused on what a fashionista Mrs. Kirschner is, did not mention that her political career actually precedes her husband’s entry into politics, did not provide any information regarding her ideological leanings, and suggested Hillary Clinton would do well to copy from Mrs. Kirschner by softening (“feminizing”) her image.
Nan –
While I am likely the last person to try and defend CNN’s reporting (I get none of my news from that source, NONE), I would suggest that the absence of substance might be due to a couple of other factors, such as the fact that Peronism is poorly understood outside of Argentina and is difficult to summarize without appropriate historical grounding (which CNN’s journalists are unlikely to have), and the fact that Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s campaign was long on generalities and short on substance. She refused to debate the other candidates. Her stump speeches were a lot of rah-rah with very little concrete action plan. I don’t think people are actually sure what she’ll be doing come December 10.
I also challenge the perception of Fernandez as a leftist. The other left-leaning leaders on her continent, such as Evo Morales, Lula da Silva and Hugo Chavez, will all consider her centrist. On the ballot there was at least one woman candidate (Elisa Carrió) well to the left of her. Fernandez received the endorsement of an influential Argentine pro-business organization (the AEA) and she talks about how great it would be if Argentine businesses sold more stuff to the rest of the world, because that would be a way out of poverty for laborers. Her election, unlike Bachelet’s in Chile, represents a vote for the status quo. She was the handpicked candidate of Nestor Kirchner, her husband, and the current president.
Also noteworthy is the record absenteeism in this year’s elections. Voting is a requisite part of citizenship in Argentina (which I always thought was kind of cool), and despite being legally obliged to vote, only 73% of voters were motivated to do so, the lowest number since elections were reinstated in 1983.
Lest it seem otherwise from my post, let me clarify: I am thrilled that Argentina has a woman president. She may do great things for her country. We’ll see come December.
As far as the news goes, I have no doubt that liberal economist Dean Baker would have gladly explained the part he knows well to CNN. A certain list just sent me an editorial on the subject by Mark Weisbrot of the related Center for Economic and Policy Research.