From a letter to a friend, here's a summary of more or less what I plan to write, but it has to be absolutely bullet-proof:

Gore is a prig and a prude and an uptight klutz. He couldn't swing and that's why he lost to Bush.  That's what I'm afraid of with Kerry. He's too calculating.

Example: he comes out against Chávez. I've looked into Hugo Chávez. He's the best president Venezuela has ever had. The opposition consists of white and light-skinned preppies and wannabes who hate him because he's dark and crude, and is educating the dark-skinned lower middle and lower classes to stand up for their rights. Venezuela's history until Chávez consists of one horrible tragedy and massacre after another. You don't want to know the details.

One of my best friends here is a Mexican was raised in Venezuela because his father was Commercial Attaché in the Mexican embassy in Caracas. He's vehement about what a disgusting slob Chávez is. But he is unable to come up with a single bad thing Chávez has done except constantly criticizing the oligarchy in a non-preppie accent.

The opposition is paid for by Bush. It has no support outside the upper middle and upper classes. A substantial portion of the referendum signatures were faked. They have a tape of one of the opposition leaders and his son arguing about this.

Kerry came out against Chávez in order to prove that he's not a Commie dupe. Anything else would be considered supporting Castro by the Cuban exiles, as Chávez is keeping Cuba alive by supplying oil on credit and not demanding to be paid on time. Cuba has thousands of doctors, teachers and other technicians working in Venezuela to raise living standards among the miserable masses.

Kerry probably got some bad advice from Barney Frank and Jimmy Carter, who feel that Chávez should just accept the phony signatures and go ahead with the referendum in order to avoid further conflict, knowing as everyone does in Venezuela that Chávez probably has the votes and the opposition probably doesn't.

My answer on that is that probably isn't good enough. Would have Frank accepted improperly credentialed petion signatures for a referendum to recall Barney Frank?

As an Anyone But Bush Democrat, I had to make excuses about this for Kerry in a pro-Chávez online forum on the grounds of political expediency. I understand the tactic, but I'm not happy about it. He should have said nothing. He's never going to get any votes from those anti-Castro people anyway. It reminds me of Gore's stupidity in rejecting Clinton's help