Chileans have elected Michelle Bachelet to be their new president. Imagine Howard Dean as a female pediatrician and realize that the USA now has an opportunity to observe how a liberal socialist administration affects a healthy economy.
Chileans Elect Socialist, First Woman President: SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - Socialist Michelle Bachelet, a separated mother and former political exile, won elections on Sunday to become the first female president in socially conservative Chile with a victory that underscores the left's growing hold on Latin America. … With almost all votes counted, Bachelet, from Chile's ruling center-left coalition, had 53 percent versus 47 percent for opposition candidate Sebastian Pinera, the government Electoral Service said.Dr. Bachelet is the daughter of a Chilean Air Force General that opposed the 1973 military coup. Pinochet jailed her family for their opposition to his dictatorial rule of the county and her father died in captivity. The important point is that Bachelet comes from elite Chilean society and she understands how money and power work in the country. As a true socialist, she wants to use the power of government to direct the wealth of society for the benefit of the poor.
Chile's Bachelet Becomes Nation's First Woman Leader: Michelle Bachelet won election in Chile, becoming the nation's first woman president after pledging to help students, workers and retirees benefit from the copper- rich country's economic growth. … The next president will take power with the highest credit rating in Latin America, a seventh year of economic expansion under way and a record budget surplus because of a surge in prices for copper, Chile's top export. Bachelet, a Socialist party member and the second woman elected president in South America, said she will use that revenue to help almost 3 million poor in a country where workers earn an average of $522 a month.Outgoing President Ricardo Logos astutely managed the surge in revenues stemming from strong prices for the primary export copper. In some ways the Chilean situation resembles the post cold war “peace dividend” economy that the Clinton Administration inherited, and rather than Howard, Michelle Bachelet may more correctly be analogous to Hillary. It will be interesting to see how she gets along with Hugo.
Chileans ``must know that the society in which they live protects them,'' Bachelet told thousands of supporters. ``My commitment is that in 2010, we will have consolidated a system of social protection.'' She said that she will improve access to education and health care and provide for the elderly.
