NEWS: Silvio Berlusconi: A Loser and a Cheater?

POLITICS: Silvio Berlusconi: A Loser and a Cheater?

Silvio Berlusconi could well be counted as one of the major political casualties of the Iraq war. His close allegiance with George W. Bush in the "war on terror" permanently aligned him in the public eye with the war in Iraq, despite Italy's relatively modest contribution to the war effort. His domination of the media in Italy guaranteed a virtual lock on his reelection despite his relative unpopularity just due to the ubiquity of positive coverage from his own networks. Except that it didn't work. He lost the general election in a tight race that was perceived as a referendum on his relationship with the US and commitment to Iraq. What's even funnier, however, is that recent allegations have surfaced that Berlusconi tried to fix the election, and still couldn't pull it off.

Proving the allegations could be difficult, especially as Berlusconi is still running a major media empire that would not benefit from the discovery of any scandals, so there will be considerable pressure to eliminate any evidence of wrongdoing if it did occur. And the fact of the matter is that proving Berlusconi's political organization to be cheaters would serve little purpose except to further humiliate the man who had hoped to dominate Italian politics for the next decade. But it would still be damned funny.

I'm in the "the more people who know what he did, the better" camp myself.

Tony Blair has suffered a similar loss of popularity in England due to his support for Bush and the Iraq war. The only reason he is still in office is that his Conservative opponents are unable to benefit, as they also supported war. Now the police are closing in on Blair, investigating the "Bribes for Peerages" scandal, so he may well end up as the first British Prime Minister to be prosecuted for corruption.

A shame that all of Bush's close allies turn out to be crooks.

I agree. Besides, it's a little silly to suggest that an ephemeral posting on an American porno website bestows undeserved publicity on a European Media Kingpin and former head of state who otherwise would have gone to his grave in obscurity.

And perhaps the ultimate victim of Bush's policies: George W. Bush.

His presidency is effectively over. The last two years of any President's second term are fairly useless anyway, but with his approval rating hovering around 30% and the Democrats in control of both houses, he has no power at all.

You know what happens when people start publicizing allegations based entirely on conjecture?

Douchebags like this guy:



pass off their tin-foil hat induced speculation as fact, and produce crap like this:

In answer to the basic interogatory of the headline - yes.

what the fuck does this have to do with ANYTHING?

Funniest thing about all this is that Berlusconi himself warned before the election that there would be fraud.

Guess he knew what he was talking about.

is the US-led military operation in iraq unpopular in italy? yes. undoubtably. just as it is in europe more broadly. but it's dramatically misleading to be trumpeting Berlusconi's outster as PM as primarily a referendum on iraq. italian voters, like voters anywhere, think about plenty of other things besides the US (to put it mildly), and Berlusconi never had a "virtual lock" on the election. italian politics are very complicated and different compared to the US, and there were a great many issues on voters' minds in that election - italy's stagnant economy, retirement issues, union issues, youth unemployment issues, issues vis a vis the EU, as well as a myriad of fringe issues ... the iraq situation was just one of many ingredients in a very big stew, in a very tight election. also, Berlusconi has been an extremely controversial and flamboyant political figure in italy for more than a decade, and he has been in and out of courtrooms on various corruption charges for his entire political career. these latest allegations are just a continuation of the show.

Berlusconi just had a heart attack like episode while giving a speech.

Read the OP:

Some idiot is making assumptions about the integrity of Italian elections based on the number of blank votes in this recent election vs. hoiw many there usually are. They may possibly be right. However, there is no proof whatsoever, and citing an irregularity like the number of blank ballots turned in is not anywhere near compelling enough to base an accusation on.

It's kind of like how Loose Change uses conjecture and baseless allegations to make it's erroneous points.