I’m at CIEC. WiFi works. (Wonder of wonder, Miracle of miracles!) Let’s live blog it.
9:07 – The last 45 seconds of a 14 minute speech were good. Come to think of it, if he’d delivered that same exact speech in 25 minutes instead of 14, pausing between lines, letting them land, letting people clap in peace instead of plowing over their enthusiasm, it would’ve been really good.
As it stands, it needs work, Henrique. It needs a lot of work.
9:06 - “The road of progress you want vs. the road to socialism the government wants for you.”
9:05 - “I pledge not to waste a moment on fights and arguments.” It’s explicit!
9:04 - His theme is Power vs. the Privileged. Did he hire Bob Shrum!?
9:02 - “Having social programs to help those who need them is good, but making sure in every family there is at least one person with a quality job is better.” This speech has been focus grouped to within an inch of his life. And he just goes wayyyyy too fast.
9:00 - PetroLincoln!
8:58 – Henrique Capriles just doesn’t understand the concept of an applause line. He just plows right over it…
8:56 - The speech is recycling a lot of the usual stump spiel, but fleshing it out. Guy paints with a broad brush.
8:55 - “The more the abuse their power the more Venezuelans will want to look to the future and go forward. I tell the government you will never be able to expropriate the votes of our people.” That’s how you fold a response to the day’s events into your campaign themes.
8:52 - HCR launches into the biggest speech of his career.
8:50 – Albanes totally pwned the Chavista power play with a simple, no bullshit speech. She’s not my cup of tea, but that was short, sharp and devastating.
8:48 - Capriles gets his comprobante. No lo vayas a botar!
8:45 – Albanes talks the nation through the reasons for destroying the Voting Rolls, underlines that CNE approved that decision. Message: Luisa Estella, I ain’t yo bitch!
8:41 - Teresa Albanes’s speech is draining the energy out of this crowd fast.
8:39 - Teresa Albanes works up the crowd with numbers. #NerdWin
8:37 – Pablo Perez didn’t get the memo about having to wear a tie.
8:35 - Oddly liturgical proclamation. I feel like saying back “es justo y necesario”.
8:31 - ”Venezuela needs a president who, rather than thinking his word is the law, follows and causes others to follow the constitution and the law.” Guy’s speechwriter should get a raise.
8:30 – “Capriles will be a worthy and exemplary commander in chief for our armed forces at the service of the nation and not of any political party.” Classic.
8:27 – Aveledo calls out the kid who died in Maracay. It’s so sad.
8:26 - You’d think the MUD could spring for a teleprompter. No dice.
8:24 - “Unity is a way of understanding Venezuela, and that’s what some don’t understand.” Aveledo is just a rock star.
8:21 - Aveledo pushing the theme of promise-keeping. Smart!
8:17 – They seem to have poached the telonero from VTV.
8:15 - We’re just getting going now.
8:04 - Running late. Nadie dijo que iba a ser fácil.
7:51 - Half of Capriles’s presumptive cabinet is out here mingling. They’ve cordoned off the chivos (Omar Barboza, Henry Ramos, Perez Vivas, Henri Falcon, Antonio Ledezma, Ismael García, etc.) in a little area where the rest of us can’t get to them. I’m tempted to go up and stick on a sign that says “Please Don’t Feed the Dinosaurs”.
7:30 – I hate mingling at events where I don’t know many people. #VenezuelanidadFail. (Did meet a random reader by chance though! Fun!)
6:36 - I came way too early, people are just starting to show up.
6:23 – You can watch this tarantín live on this page.
6:10 – Badgegate resolved. 20 minutes wasted. Inside, it’s basically a verbena.
5:51 - Stupid rigamarole with the press credentials. I brought my Comando Tricolor badge, they wanted a MUD badge. I thought Comando Tricolor had swallowed MUD…!??! Anyway, #BadgeFail.
5:45 - Ran into Manuel Puyana from JOTA, HCR’s Youth wing and the guys behind his sala situacional. Says they ended up with data from 44% of voting centers. He thinks the SitRooms operation worked perfect, but the data collection mechanism needs work. They’re working on it.
MUD must tune up the machinery. At least, one witness on every table in the country.
OJO, that doesn’t mean no witnesses were there, it means HCR’s SitRoom had contact with witnesses in just 44% of tables. It’s really a database problem – they need to make sure they have a way to contact the right people on the right phone numbers at the right time.
OK. I understood it wrong. Hope the fix that for October. Zero margin of error.
#3040449 (the amount of voters we had) is at the moment the 2nd. global trending topic on Twitter.
Capriles is rockin’ that suit.
Totally. Esteban looks weird on suits now. Last sunday, for example.
Kinda hard to look normal with that freakishly swollen ginormous head, no matter the outfit.
Leopoldo didn’t get the memo either about the tie…and the suit. He looks like he’s wearing one of those restaurant lended jackets! Que paso papa?
Fuck Chavez and his people, let them be the bringers of brimstone and fire, we’ll be the ones talking about the future, hope and a better Venezuela for everyone.
“don’t feed the dinasours”. . . You cracked me up
aww, whatever happened to all the henry falcon love around here?
Live stream is offline, anyone have another link?
globovision.com
Thanks, btw! I’m completely sucked in to these elections (US American here).
Arnaldo Espinoza, your death won’t be in vain. My deep condolences to his family and friends.
Meanwhile, Chiguire nails it once more.
http://www.elchiguirebipolar.net/14-02-2012/tsj-ordena-a-la-mud-viajar-en-el-tiempo-y-cancelar-primarias/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+elchiguirebipolar+%28El+Chig%C3%BCire+Bipolar%29
“Wait, I get to be Commander in Chief? Holy shit…”
Ramon Guillermo is rockin’ this speech.
Mucho lomito!
My father writes his speeches himself… Not too brag about it too much, though.
WOW. Another reason to congratulate him. That was good. Really good.
Dile a tu papa que es un DURO. (Y explicale que significa) :o)
Lo Certifico.
Ah, he knows… He’s much more street wise than I am… ;-)
I take my hat off.
Favorite part of your dad’s speech: talking about Commander-in-Chief Capriles.
It’s a cool image… And Capriles is much more savvy than he’s given credit for…
i was going to say that maybe his son helped him out….
We did talk about the speech last night; he was wondering what would be appropiate… Alas, he writes very early in the morning (5:00 AM or so…)…
Qué eufórico el ambiente.
Teresa is on now. The anti-Tibi. She made an amazing job. Final results.
3.059.024 total voters. HCR won with 1.913.190 votes. Problem, Pirela?
Albanes is the answer to Mario Silva et al. Her speech allows HCR to focus on the future.
O se ponen las pilas o aparece Java antes que HCR does his thing.
We dont like ties in Maracaibo….
“Luisa Estella, I ain’t yo bitch!” Those mofos have nothin’ now. Whatcha gonna do then?
Pana la fijacion de los Venezolanos con el numero de cedula es insoportable.
Agreed.
insane. Why does the government of Venezuela have to know my grocery shopping list? First time I was in Venezuela I thought I had time traveled back to Erich Honecker-landia with all of that. Then there’s the 15 minute delay while the clerk tries to figure out with the manager what kind of c. m. goes shopping with a foreign passport and no cedula….May HCR and his government strike this insanity down!!!!
I mean, there’s blood running in the goddam streets, the judicial system is a cruel joke, they’re shipping out toneladas of colombia’s finest on regular flights right out of Maiquetia and some idiot is having a panic attack because you’ve got no cedula number. Time to elect a government!
Time to shake the State up!
They’re rolling the tape too early. back it up, back it up. Too late.
Those microphones are too high, it’s driving me nuts.
The MUD needs to do a “vaca” to buy a telepromter or two. With electric plants.
“The government will never expropiate the people’s vote” NICE.
“electric plants”, What’s that, Guaringlish for Planta Electrica?
Yep.
Hey! I have Electric Plants and I water them everyday. They make buzzing sounds and shoot sparks when I do but what the heck.
Oh, boy…you have missed a lot in the last few years
Algae:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/april/electric-current-plants-041310.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100413121336.htm
And let’s not talk about biomass energy.
If someone from Globovision is reading this. Please don’t do the music over the speach!
Too late. Kinda sucks. I’m watching on TVR. No music there.
Speech seems a bit flat, but it’s on purpose. They wanted him to look serene, presidential after a crazy day.
He ain’t Barack. But at least he doesn’t try to out-Chavez Chavez. Fine by me.
I’m with you on the teleprompter Quico……uhg
Slow down!!
Maybe it’s me. High expectations probably…. Speech content is good but delivery is flat.
“PetroLincoln!” But can this Lincoln challenge the Vampire Hunter Lincoln? The movie is coming this summer.
Someone bring him a bottle of water!
Globo quito la musica!
Que bueno!
Unusual mention of the word “socialism.”
Not his best…
Going home, the wife is going to kick my a..
Nice job Quico, I think you need to stay in Venezuela for the duration of the elections. ;o)
Quico, get up there and hug him!
i like that he just don´t even has to waste a moment in being cheered and applauded. but he does need to improve his podium skills. did much better with all the spontaneous crows on Sunday, which is important
Speaking to a large crowd is not his best forum, but it wasn’t bad. The only point I think he missed was reassuring the military.
The themes were fine but I prefer his Sunday speech. Too fast, bro! Maybe he was nervous. At least he avoided to do it caleta. The camino theme is good, but needs more development.
“As it stands, it needs work, Henrique. It needs a lot of work.”
If you have the chance of meeeting him tonight Quico, would you tell it that?
He needs to get his ass out of that podium and go down and mesh with da folks.
Also, how many people watched this? Only a small portion of those that already voted for him….
VV & Televen doesn’t care. here in lara, one regional channel (Not Promar, because the chavista mayor is having her show today. #MoneyRules) and TVR (cable only). With RCTV out and Globo only on cable in most parts, proves the negative effect of the comunicational hegemony.
Besides the fact that the top news tonight and tomorrow is the outcome of TSJ decision.
VV and Televen were going to broadcast this… They must have been frightened by the TSJ…
Not surprised by VV. Televen had not excuse. Instead of the speech, they put an episode of ER.
Capriles needs to work on his speechifying. Hiring a speaking coach for two weeks of lessons will pay off in thousands of votes.
Speech Intensive Bootcamp!
Now we have to do two “vacas”, the teleprompters and this one.
Someone better tell him soon!
Hey, I take that quick 15 minute speech over the 9 hours speeches of Chavez in cadena!
Probably already has. Imagine how he was before the coaching…
Thing is, in his press conference, he was excellent. He needs to to forget the Big Speech. If he can just talk to the audience like he would if he was speaking one on one to someone, maybe he will come off better.
Everyone understands that speechmaking is not his strong suit, and that’s fine. Yet some of the problems involved in his presentation seem easy enough to address with some professional speech coaching. You don’t have to be Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to learn to pause for applause. You don’t have to be Cicero to learn to slow your speech down for emphasis.
Those are skill you learn…but only if somebody teaches them to you.
Indeed. He could out-Demosthenes Demosthenes.
There are certainly professional speech coaches in Venezuela.
I hope they also have people who train for crisis situations.
Here we have companies that are hired by CEO’s and big politicians to train in situations like the video below
(only that job seeker would be the CEO and the bloke with the type writer would be a fake journalist helping to be prepared for the real thing (all with cameras to capture response and all)
Mitchell & Webb are hilarious.
thank you, Quico.
Today was supposed to be our big night. But Luisa Estela, with the help of a mystery man from Chivacoa rained on our parade. Dismissing the laws and their own jurisprudence, they tried to steal the cuadenos, to create the succesor of the tascon List. As a sick joke, former CNE Carrasquero wrote the ruling. They tried to caught the MUD offguard. But this time, the trappers became the trapped. The cuadernos were already destroyed. Their move backfired.
Still they went full metal, making raids on MUD headquarters around the country. In Maracay, DIM agents and Aragua State Police hold a coordinator and found brave citizens resisting, fighting with their bare hands against the same kalashnikovs who supposed to protect us from the empire. And then, one young life was taken away by a police car. Arnaldo Espinoza was his name. I never heard of him until earlier today, and now while I write this, I cry like I lost a family member. He didn’t deserve this. But try to tell that to the governor, who finds the death on babies in hospitals as “acceptable”. Are you happy now, Mr. Velasquez? Look what you’ve done. Mrs. Morales, how you can sleep tonight after what you did? Mr. Isea, do you have no heart?
Tonight I’ll pass the fact that Henrique’s speech wasn’t as good as last Sunday. I still take my hat to recognize the role of Mr. Aveledo and Ms. Albanes. But this night wasn’t what I hoped for. The family of Arnaldo are probably in a funeral home, mourning for the death of his son. Even of I never knew him, his tragic ending hurts me and saddens me to the core. I would like to tell their parents that I’m sorry and that’s his son’s untimely death is not in vain. But It wouldn’t make a difference.
Is Arnaldo Espinoza our Neda Agha Soltan? It could be. I don’t think he wanted to be a martyr. But he decided to face that police car, thinking that if he could stop it, like the tank man in Tiannamen, maybe to make a small action of defiance. To say to those who today decide to abuse all the power of the state to save their sorry asses: NO, I WON’T ACCEPT THIS. He thought that car would stay still. It didn’t. He died shortly after getting hit.
I knew of Arnaldo only after his death, but now he will live in me, in my conscience, because he risked and gave his life for something larger than him. Not for Henrique nor for the MUD, but for Venezuela. Rest in peace, Arnaldo.
Quico,
Your live-blog was great and all, but it cannot match the hilarity of this
http://www.aporrea.org/oposicion/n198913.html
The Capybara got some serious competition. I can’t believe my taxes help to pay this junk. This is state-sponsored palangrismo. Meanwhile, many journalists with more talent on their toes than the person who wrote this are out of work.
Thanks JC, such a gem! My favorite part:
“”Bueno, violamos el acuerdo porque las quemaron a las 36 horas pero eso es mejor que seguirle el juego a esos arrastrados”, respondió otra de las féminas mientras leía mensajes de texto en su costoso teléfono celular.”
El Chiguire could not have done a better job!
The piece oozes contempt and tries to give the impression that the opposition is composed only of “Rich” people. That “costoso telefono celular” caught my eye and I laugh, as if the guy who owns the hot dog stand in the corner doesn’t have a blackberry or even better device than most of the people who were there that night! LOL!
Geez! I thought it was one of those Aporrea texts by one of those madmen who just comment for free, but this is actually an ABN thing, from the “state” press, official. It was just reprinted in Aporrea. Verrrga!
I doubt the AVN person who wrote this was there. But there’s only one way to confirm it.
¿Quico, de casualidad no viste ayer si vendian tequeños adentro?
Si vendian – compre unos y estaban medio frios…pero me moria de hambre…
(The write-up rings true to me, anyway – the concession stand at CIEC really does say Snack & Break!)
Medio frios? Y costaron 50 bolos?
Bueno, that’s heartless capitalism for you…
That’s no capitalism, that’s Guipuzcoan monopoly.
In Venezuela now you have any of these three scenarios:
1) socialist tequeños, produced in Sezhuan Province by child labor, imported to Venezuela within the programme “Independencia alimentaria Negra Matea” and paid in oil barrels that would otherwise go to PDVSA R&D investment or textbooks for children in Maturín
2) monopoly tequeños, produced by a feudal guy well connected to Cadivi, who can import Italian cheese for said tequeños and who can sell to PDVSA guys, to tourists or the like
or
3) no tequeños at all because you don’t have the oil, the cheese or anything else to prepare them.
For 8 euros you can buy something better at a cafe inside the EU commission.
I wonder if they were typical, small tequeños or huge, big-ass tequeñones, like the ones I got from my school cantina. They looked like police batons.
Bueno they were mid-sized, franchise-style tequeños, but there weren’t 4 of them. Probably 12-15.
Jajajaja que vaina tan buena, creo que eso es imparodiable, it looks as it was written by the Chiguire Bipolar, compare with this http://www.elchiguirebipolar.net/12-02-2012/vtv-inicia-transmision-historica-del-redcarpet-de-los-grammys/
Talk about snarky!
http://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/n198928.html