Word: fecklessness
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...winning the presidency in 1998, Chávez had never lost an election until December 2007, when he was stunned in a constitutional referendum that he had hoped would eliminate presidential term limits and greatly expand his socialist project. But his nemesis in that plebiscite wasn't Venezuela's feckless political opposition. It was a broad and unexpected university-student movement that took to the streets, mobilized the victorious "no" vote and flummoxed...
...ongoing federal criminal probe) the equivalent of a lynching and his inability to call witnesses a "trampling of the Constitution." But his outrageous media appearances and unpredictable moves have kept Blagojevich the unrivaled star of his own reality show, making the jury of his peers in state government look feckless by comparison. (See a gallery of politicians caught in scandals...
...same time, Chávez's feckless foes should realize that they're still weak enough for El Comandante to consider the constitutional issue a still viable option. Chávez, a former army paratrooper officer who led a failed coup attempt in 1992 before winning the presidency in the 1998 election (and a special race in 2000 under a rewritten constitution), has benefited greatly from a dysfunctional opposition led largely by leftovers from the old guard that pilfered Venezuela's oil wealth and left more than half the population in poverty; it thwarted Chávez last year only...
...course, the children of wealthy parents don't always grow up to be self-indulgent, feckless adults, just as deprived children don't always become driven overachievers. But literature and media are stuffed with rich-kids-gone-bad stories, and there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that cosseted offspring can lack the thrift, independence, ambition, persistence and entrepreneurial spirit that contributed to their parents' success. Most people have heard of the "shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves" curse, which holds that family wealth, once accumulated, is typically dissipated by the third generation because trust-fund babies, having little regard for the money that...
...sprawling army of supporters might be an even bigger challenge. Obama's efficient, competent, disciplined campaign set a new standard for a well-managed operation. Could Palin do the same? Probably not. One thing the Troopergate report revealed is that she surrounded herself in Alaska with a feckless mix of cronies and yes-men and ceded far too much power to her husband. She would have to be a much better manager and judge of talent than that...