Western-Leaning ROMANIA

DIARY

In Romania, the Western-leaning center-right candidate Basescu has beaten out Adrian Nastase, favored by the more-moneyed party and the outgoing Ion Iliescu...

(and of course, America doesn't give a shit, as it was all over the BBC's Europe section, but buried three pages deep in the International Section of the New York Times website)

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Circumstantially, and with broad generalizations, it's tempting to compare the situation to the Ukraine. The incumbant-backed candidate had ties to old-style communists, the support of state (to some extent) and more financial resources. The opposition had

But there aren't as widespread allegations of fraud, and Nastase has already conceded. This will be more interesting to watch play out in the long run.

I heard it first, by the way, from Halfway Down the Danube.

~ Connor