Hugo a Step Behind

The pathetic communist thug Hugo Chavez resembles a bratty child desperate for daddy's attention, with his silly antics the past few days. Granted, the lapdog liberal media in this country gives him equal billing with President Bush, but the fact is Chavez is extraordinarily unpopular with the people of Latin and South America, no matter how much the left tries to build him up.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez carried his anti-U.S. countertour to the Caribbean yesterday, adding stops in Haiti and Jamaica in what one analyst saw as evidence he was losing his mano-a-mano contest with President Bush.

Mr. Chavez has shadowed Mr. Bush on his weeklong Latin tour, traveling the length of the continent to promote his populist policies and socialist economic prescriptions as an alternative to the market-oriented solutions Mr. Bush offered.

While popular protests against Mr. Bush have stolen much of the news coverage, the press has been less friendly to Mr. Chavez.

"Chavez's propaganda trip has failed to get on the front pages, while Bush's embraces have been the main photos on newspapers across Latin America," said Nelson Bocaranda, a Venezuelan political commentator who argued that Mr. Chavez had lost the public relations battle.

He said that explains why Mr. Chavez is pushing further into ideologically friendly territory, visiting countries he hadn't originally scheduled even as Mr. Bush winds down his tour in Mexico tomorrow.

"Today, he added Haiti and Jamaica where his prolific wallet is planting money in many projects," Mr. Bocaranda said.