Spinning Chavez

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez easily survived yesterday's recall vote. The opposition is claiming fraud.

An early reaction from a pro-Chavez site:

Although there has been no negative comment about the conduct of the election from either the US-based Carter Centre or Organization of American States election monitors, the country's elites "categorically reject the results." Hundreds of thousands of people are partying in the streets while waiting to see what the anti-popular forces will do next.

An early reaction from an anti-Chavez site:

Exit polls show Chavez losing badly. The big question is whether we can trust the official count, and whether Chavez will go even if he loses.

People almost invariably leap to the data they happen to prefer. Me, I'll wait for those monitors to weigh in.