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Hypothetical drive-by poll II: pick your leader, comrade!

by Turambar Fri Mar 28th, 2008 at 03:42:36 PM EST

Now here's the question: which current head of government/state would you be most happy with for your own country?


I ask because people usually answer pretty fast when asked for bad leaders, but always take some time to come up with good ones.

As with real elections, you don't need to know everyone's political positions exactly and can follow your gut or any obscure reason (e.g. high entertainment value).

I pre-selected 30 (more or less democratically) elected incumbents with some name recognition value.

And... go!

Poll
Who is it?
. 1. George W. Bush 0%
. 2. Gordon Brown 0%
. 3. Nicolas Sarkozy 0%
. 4. Vladimir Putin 10%
. 5. Yasuo Fukuda 0%
. 6. Angela Merkel 5%
. 7. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner 5%
. 8. Michelle Bachelet 10%
. 9. Luiz Inácio da Silva 0%
. 10. Evo Morales 5%
. 11. Hugo Chávez 10%
. 12. Raúl Castro 0%
. 13. Felipe Calderón 0%
. 14. Stephen Harper 0%
. 15. Kevin Rudd 5%
. 16. Manmohan Singh 0%
. 17. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 0%
. 18. Ehud Olmert 0%
. 19. Robert Mugabe 0%
. 20. Thabo Mbeki 0%
. 21. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 0%
. 22. Kostas Karamanlis 0%
. 23. Anders Fogh Rasmussen 0%
. 24. Bertie Ahern 0%
. 25. Jean-Claude Juncker 0%
. 26. Jan Peter Balkenende 0%
. 27. Romano Prodi 0%
. 28. Lech Kaczyński 0%
. 29. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero 45%
. 30. Pope Benedict XVI 0%
. 31. Anna Chy 5%

Votes: 20
Results | Other Polls
Display:
It's number 29 for me, please. I could easily have gone for 15, though.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu
by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Fri Mar 28th, 2008 at 03:45:13 PM EST
Ditto. Can we give reasons?

The main things I have heard about his government is the liberalisation of the laws for LGBT rights. I dare say Spain is now officially one of the most liberal countries in this area.

Also he withdrew troops from Iraq, which certain other European leaders should consider...

Member of the Anti-Fabulousness League since 1987.

by Ephemera on Sat Mar 29th, 2008 at 08:51:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Of course you can give reasons. These two are pretty good, I might add.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu
by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Sat Mar 29th, 2008 at 10:35:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Zapatero, who also got my vote, is taking an early lead!
by keikekaze on Fri Mar 28th, 2008 at 10:57:56 PM EST
With much chagrin I have to admit to not knowing enough to be able to vote.

(Tempting as it is to vote for Hugo Chávez just to irk any neo-con who happens to wander in.)


She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Fri Mar 28th, 2008 at 11:43:02 PM EST
Logical fallacy, dear ATinNM! "Neocon bad" and "Neocon hate Chavez" doesn't imply "Chavez good".
by Francois in Paris on Fri Mar 28th, 2008 at 11:59:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Logical Fallacy?  Au contrary my dear Francois.  Haven't you heard of the EIEIO -> A argumentive form?  ;-)

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
by ATinNM on Sat Mar 29th, 2008 at 11:49:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]
No, but I've heard of the Old McDonald identity: eiei=0

It'd be nice if the battle were only against the right wingers, not half of the left on top of that — François in Paris
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Mar 29th, 2008 at 01:02:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Come on, give it a shot. Everything you need to know about these guys is on wikipedia.

The whole point of this diary is to "force" people to decide constructively, to be for somebody instead of against him or her. So, that's no Chavez for you.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Sat Mar 29th, 2008 at 11:26:57 AM EST
[ Parent ]
(Whoa.  Got to wrap my head around this one.)

You mean I can use the Internet as a tool of education to gain knowledge that can be used to make rational and weighed decisions?

thinking, thinking, pondering, considering

Nah.  I've read Kos for too many years.  Don't believe it.

:-0

She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

by ATinNM on Sat Mar 29th, 2008 at 11:56:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]
If you trust that piece of crap, you're done for to begin with. Just saying.

"When the abyss stares at me, it wets its pants." Brian Hopkins
by EricC on Tue Apr 1st, 2008 at 12:37:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Ok, who else chose Mad Vlad?

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
by poemless on Sat Mar 29th, 2008 at 02:02:28 PM EST
TIME.

No, really, I expected him to get a good result here. Let's wait and see if you're having a fan base you're not aware of.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Sat Mar 29th, 2008 at 10:32:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I voted for Chávez. I could have voted for Rudd or Zapatero, but the question was my country, and I'd really wish someone combative to take upon the local right (and, heh, 'left').

Blustered question: the head of government/state of which country is Anna Chy? I only found some references to a model by that name.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Sun Mar 30th, 2008 at 02:18:50 PM EST
Anna Chy is a play on anarchy, for those who prefer nobody to any of the 30 selected.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu
by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Sun Mar 30th, 2008 at 03:14:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Then she gets my vote. I think situations makes leaders more then the other way around.

What I really want to vote for is a political system were it does not matter much who is in charge, since they are only there to enact the will of the people and if they do not, they are out. Enough of this mandate to rule crap, wheter it is divine or based on election results.

Sweden's finest (and perhaps only) collaborative, leftist e-newspaper Synapze.se

by A swedish kind of death on Mon Mar 31st, 2008 at 03:48:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Looks like Zapatero wins the ET award for "most wanted leader" without a real challenger. He must be delighted.



"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu

by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Tue Apr 1st, 2008 at 09:55:44 AM EST
That photo's been photoshopped, right?

Compare with this other one.

It'd be nice if the battle were only against the right wingers, not half of the left on top of that — François in Paris

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Apr 1st, 2008 at 10:02:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, it's pretty obvious.

"If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles." Sun Tzu
by Turambar (sersguenda at hotmail com) on Tue Apr 1st, 2008 at 10:18:06 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Hmm... That is an - ah - interesting caption. Where did you pick up that pic, Mig?

- Jake

(Puns are (c), TM and (r) where appropriate. Their use should not be construed as a claim to copyright on part of the author.)

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Apr 2nd, 2008 at 01:51:50 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Google images.

It'd be nice if the battle were only against the right wingers, not half of the left on top of that — François in Paris
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Apr 2nd, 2008 at 01:57:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]


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