The other day we were being accused – perhaps rightly so – of being too partial to Primero Justicia. So … I’m doing my darnedest to ignore what Henrique Capriles has been doing or saying… or posting on his Facebook page.
Move along, folks, nothing to see here. No reason to check out the video below the break. No need to chime in through the comments section…none at all.
Caracas Chronicles 
It’s the best mini-speech I’ve ever heard him say. “La vida es abrir y cerrar ciclos. Nosotros vamos a cerrar un ciclo. Nadie puede sentir miedo.” It gave me goosebumps.
I liked the emotional delivery. Somebody must be helping with the speeches, which is great.
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Oh, c’mon Juan, just own it!
http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xijajb
Radonsky se lanza par Globovision
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He’s getting better. But he definitely has a grumpy-problem. Look at his face, it’s like he’s friggin’ pissed off at you! Even when he’s clearly not…
So much of political oratory is about projecting optimism. You can’t project optimism when you look like you’re about to blow a gasket!
Grumpy McGrumpalot…guy has to work on that.
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Grumpy McGrumpalot…guy has to work on that.
Damn weird stuff with these html tags, sorry for the bold lettering.
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After being being up against Chavez for so long, maybe has good reason to be grumpy… I know I am, and I just live here.
Seriously, though… would you really rather have a painted-on politician’s smile? The man is serious and talking about serious business… Let him be himself.
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Hey, when I fully board the bandwagon, I will let all of you know. In the meantime, I remain officially on the fence.
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you’re only on that fence cuz you get a better view of man-crush-object HCR from up there!!!
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I’ve actually never met the man. Sorry.
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Are you implying he can be “The Man”?
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MCM could also be “the man”…
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MCM totally could be “The Man” but i’d be prefer to see her as “The Woman”
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His campaign slogan should be “Menos mal que ya se van!”
OT: the domain LasMentirasDeChavez.com is still available. Perhaps you, or someone else in the opposition, should buy it before it’s gone. (Didn’t Tio Teodoro say he was going to respond to everything Chavez says?)
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He is getting way better than last time I checked. I liked the theme and the message of unity, still he has work to do in transmitting the emotional part of the speech. Loved this piece>
“En cuanto a la Misión Vivienda, recientemente lanzada por el presidente Hugo Chávez, llamó a todos los mirandinos a inscribirse en el listado. Todos tenemos que inscribirnos porque los recursos son de todos los venezolanos”
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Well, It’s about time… How will the goddess fortuna take his audacity?
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This dude has the charisma of an artichoke. He’s got a hugely steep learning cuve head of him. It’s not so much that he look grumpy, he just sounds so dull.
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The best speech I’ve heard from him, and I was living in Municipio Baruta when he was Major. Also he is right on target on his marketing strategy:
1- He is not attacking the “Misiones”, rather than that he is leveraging them by inviting everyone in Miranda to join. Message for the chavista-light group: “Don’t be afraid, if I win I will not take away your “Misiones”.
2- He is launching his candidacy during an event where he is giving away certificates of house construction. Message for the chavista-light group: “Chavez is not the only one that can solve your house problem”.
3- He is wearing a Venezuelan flag color cap and talking about Bolivar. Message for the opposition: “Bolivar and the flag are ours, not Chavez property”
Most importantly, he talked about “closing a cycle + don’t be afraid”, a message that opposition members can surely relate to.
Net, someone is doing his homework.
Saludos
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It may be the time I have spent away; but does he sound a bit like Esteban?
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Totally…that’s exactly what I thought! It could be a similar phenomenon to what happened during the IV Republic when every other politician tried to imitate Romulo’s, and later on CAP’s, way of delivering a speech…you know, the “adeco” style!
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Probably The King’s speech has something to do with it as well!
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The guy has to work on rhetorics.
One of the things he has to do: read good books. Another: listen to stories and learn story telling.
I would laugh aloud when some Chavista told Chávez was a “hombre muy leído”, but then I realised: actually, by Venezuelan standards he is indeed a well-read (or bad-read, but in any case read) man. He definitely read without system and what he says is just rubbish, but he can tell stories. He also has good memory, even if he has the economic skills of a mad cow. So: he can nest a story into another sentence into another story and backtrack, much to the amazement of those following. Capriles does not need this last trick but he does need to tell stories and he needs to do that preferably without paper and then using ideas familiar with his FEUDAL public.
Venezuela is feudal. The “Bolívar” crap is apparently the only thing they think on a national level, but in reality they get moved when someone goes regional. And people from Caracas-Valencia-Maracaibo sin by not learning about other regions. So when he starts going around, he will hav to use those myths, stories, local problems.
I wish him success
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One of the biggest hurdles any opposition candidate has to overcome is getting the attention of the Ni-Ni and the undecided. There’s always a confirmation bias among the skeptical that work against the opposition politicians, and the people will tend to listen what they want, or what they expect from them.
It’s really nice to see that HCR is starting to polish his abbilities, but that probably won’t cut it with some guys. A narrative, as Kepler points out, is very important. Obama built a very powerful narrative that got him to the White House. That’s what’s missing in the opposition.
The guy was Major in Baruta and he is now Governor in Miranda. There should be some success stories in Baruta and Miranda about his work that could help this guy. For a not-so-charming guy like HCR*, a regular Joe telling how he has benefited from the policies of HCR could win more votes that a nice speech. Just saying…
*Not-so-charming for a guy. There are some ladies that LOVE the guy…
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Mind: I am becoming a bit unconfortable with the tags “ninis”, chavista, oppos, because they are just too broad.
I have gone through the stats. Abstention in areas Chavistas win is now on average 10% higher than in areas where they lose. Those people who do not vote are no longer Chavistas. We must reach them.
Now look at this chart I produced:
municipios in blue are the ones the NO got more votes in 2009’s referendum.
municipios in red are the ones where the SÍ got more votes AND abstention was lower than 39% (still, it was always much higher than in the blue ones).
Municipios in pink were those where the SÍ won with more than 39% of the votes but abstention also was more than 39%. Municipios in white are the ones where SÍ won but with less than 39% and abstention was higher than 39%.
In the blue municipios abstention was in the twenties.
The grey municipios are the rest.
This is just one dimension but in general I can tell you not just from those numbers but from knowing lots of people across Venezuela’s “un-Internet un-Globovisión land”: we must go there.
I am not talking about going firstly to Parapara, which has less than 10000 people. I am talking about going to Tocuyito, Guacara, Los Guayos, Maturín, Guanare, Punto Fijo, etc, all places with more than 100 000 inhabitants.
70% of the Venezuelan population lives there but less than 20% of the readers of this or my blog come from there.
Capriles needs to talk to them and to do that he needs to localize his stories.
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I listened to HRC on the radio this morning. He was talking to César Miguel Rondón and he described something very close to what you are saying: more face-to-face campaigning and less time on the media. It seems like the guy knows what he has to do….
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I’m writing to them :-p
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I’m not sure about you guys, but in the AN they’re already talking about some videos of Polichacao “violent” training(You know the PNB says “STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE” when they apprehend someone) and talking about investigating HCR already,i smell shit,and it comes from the government. Hes gonna get disabled.It took em less than 48 hours since HCR made his candidacy official.
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They’re certainly gonna try. What can we do about it? No tengamos miedo.
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by the way,dailymotion sucks,i can’t play the video for 15 seconds.
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When it comes to his intelligence or efficiency I dont think any of us really doubt his ability to be a good president ( Great by Esteban’s standards). Now while it is true that he could be a better public speaker which admitedly is very important in Venezuelan politics there is no doubt hes getting better. Theres more than 18 months left to the election guys. He will get even better by then due to a mix of experience and assistance from experienced politicians who are starting to realize that he is the country’s biggest hope for getting out of this quasi communist nightmare.
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