You don't get it Charles. Chavez can't be a genuine representative of the working class in spite of the fact that he has the overwhelming support of the working class in Venezuela. The working class does not know that what is best for them is to smash the state. They're worried about petty shit like food, water, jobs and all that jazz. Chavez work making clean water and electricity available to everyone as well as improving the schools and increasing enrollment and literacy makes him nothing but a tool of the man. Making the working class more comfortable is just a waste of time. It will postpone the inevitable smashing of the state by making the working class compliant. As Chuck pointed out in an earlier post "We need more Mookies throwing trash cans". If Chavez had only thrown a trash can he might have a legitimate claim to be representing the working class.
While I think the rhetoric of Chavez speech was silly the speech wasn't intended for me but rather for his domestic audience so who gives a shit what I think. The fact that Chavez can say "I don't give a fuck what the US thinks about my speech because it isn't for them" is interesting to me partly because he didn't make this speech at home but to an international audience.
I think Yoshie is wrong to label Stewart a centrist comedian. He seems more left of center. Hardly a revolutionary but left of center still. His idea that ObL is a bigger terrorist than Bush does demonstrate that he isn't too left of center however. Doesn't he claim to be a socialist? I do agree it will be interesting to watch him work if/when the Dems take control again. As Yoshie pointed out the most powerful and prominent politicos are all on the right making Stewarts job relative easy for him. He plays it safe by satirizing both the left and right but I don't think that prevents his sympathies from being more with the left.
John Thornton