(My new American Thinker post)
As in Chile and Colombia recently, the left in Brazil won a very close election. Best of all, President Bolsonaro is ready to concede and move on. This is from The Guardian:
Jair Bolsonaro has reportedly thrown in the towel after his presidential election defeat in Brazil on Sunday, telling members of the supreme court: “It’s over.”
He went silent for nearly two days after being beaten by the leftwing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the vote. When Bolsonaro finally appeared before the cameras on Tuesday afternoon, he failed to explicitly concede defeat or congratulate his vanquisher.
However, shortly after that appearance, he made his way to the supreme court where he met seven of its judges, including Edson Fachin, who later told journalists that Bolsonaro had indicated to them that he understood the writing was on the wall.
“The president used the verb ‘to end’ in the past tense,” Fachin said. “He said: ‘It’s over.’ Therefore, [one must] look ahead.”
In an interview with the newspaper O Globo, Bolsonaro’s vice-president, Hamilton Mourão, made it clear he accepted the defeat. “There’s no point in crying any more, we lost the game,” he said.
It's over and President Bolsonaro needs to move on.
In Chile, the Left won a tight election, assumed a mandate but the Chileans said, not so fast. They rejected the new leftist constitution and President Gabriel Boric looks weak because he misunderstood his election. His polls are dropping big time because the voters did not vote for a sharp turn to the Left.
In Colombia, the Left won a tight election, too. In two months, President Gustavo Petro's polls are dropping because the nation’s currency closed at a record low and the talk of a transition from fossil fuels have also led to major losses for Ecopetrol, the state-owned oil giant.
My point is that President Lula in Brazil will overreach and the public will react much like Chile and Colombia.
Bolsonaro should gracefully walk away and watch the nightly news. He is going to look a lot better when the public gets a taste of Lula the second time around.
P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.