Oretega wins ... and the world keeps turning

In non-U.S. election news, Sandinista strongman Daniel Ortega has won the Nicaraguan presidency. At least most everyone thinks he has.

There's a funny thing about Nicaragua. No one seems to believe anything is completely true, and at the same time no one expresses any doubt when stating dubious facts. Isolde and I were told earlier today that the other four candidates for the Nicaraguan presidency planned to pool the votes they received behind the leading challenger to Ortega -- Washington's man in Nicaragua, a banker thought by many to be a crook -- and thus steal the election back from him. The man telling us this -- a very kind restaurant owner who dislikes Ortega -- seemed sure of himself. Of course he's also completely wrong.

Watching the election down here, it's striking how absolutely poor the choices offered the people were. Of the five candidates, only one was untouched by scandal. And we're not talking unsavoury campaign donations or inappropriate mentoring of interns. You've got the former banker, who helped defraud this country in the 1990s. You've got a former vice president, who still enthusiastically supports an ex-president convicted of stealing more that $100 million from the Nicaraguan people. And you've got a former Contra fighter that got about .28 percent of the vote, and couldn't even get support from the U.S.

Then there's Ortega. I'm sure when I get back to the states, I'll be meeting people who think he's an alright guy because he (rightly) tells the U.S. to stay the hell out of the Nicaraguan election, and because he and our president don't get along. A handful of people here talk like that, though not as many as one would think. It's this funny thing people only do in politics, decide that because one guy's an ass the other must be a saint.

The fact it Ortega's presidency could be as bad as anything that could happen to this country. For starters, he made a series of deals with Nicaragua's devils to get there. People like him because he leads crowds in song -- usually "Give Peace a Chance" -- then promises them everything. He promises mandatory schooling, land reform and better infrastructure. He promises a revolution of love, of health and of agriculture. He even said he'll make Western Union reduce its fees on remittances from abroad.

Most importantly, he's promised he's been born again, free of corruption. For a cynical people, the Nicaraguans seem to love this line. Three of the five presidential candidates were using it, and people have one the presidency in the past on it. That in each case it's turned out completely false doesn't seem to dissuade anyone.