LEFTIST IS FRONTRUNNER IN ECUADOR RACE

QUITO, Ecuador:

Name a Latin American politician who frequently resorts to anti-American rhetoric and refers to President Bush as a devil. For those tempted to say Hugo Chavez, here's another hint: He's also the frontrunner in Ecuador's presidential election on Sunday.

Economist Rafael Correa, tall, charismatic and youthful at 43, is surging into the lead as a fresh-faced outsider in what could be the latest gain for Latin America's leftward shift. But he faces a strong challenge from Alvaro Noboa, a banana billionaire who is also pushing a populist line, but from the capitalist end.

"We will do away with the lying oligarchy!" Correa shouted Thursday night, getting soaked as he closed his campaign in a drenching downpour with some 3,000 supporters on a blocked-off avenue. "We will take it in the first round, the first round!"

Say what you will about Hugo Chavez, he has definitely started something in Latin and South America. Even more distressing is the possibility, and it looks likely, that Daniel Ortega will soon be elected back into power in Nicaragua. One wonders if all the attention that is being paid to the Middle East and the WOT (which should be paid, mind you) is taking too much attention away from our neighbors to the South as the neighborhood goes to hell in a handbasket. It's not that these thugs are doing anything political groundbreaking. It's a theme as old as time. The appeal to the poorest of the population and scapegoat the rich and successful...it's they who are keeping you poor, it's they who are keeping you from being prosperous.

Funny, that sounds very similar to the what the Nazis said about the Jews. The more things change...