Greek elections
What about the Greek elections? Give us a grade in terms of rhetoric and substance. From what I could understand of it, I would say «A minus» / «B plus» in terms of the presentation of the campaign to the Greek people. The press especially did a wonderful job of detailing the various issues. To me, it turned simply on the fact that the time had come for a change. I think both candidates did a good job presenting their views to the public. I think the debate needed to be restructured, that the debate was not helpful. Other than that, the stump-speaking I thought was clear, to the point, rhetorically effective. I liked the fact that the candidates were able to agree on things, like not to debate about the Olympics or Cyprus. It’s the sign of a very healthy democracy. But it in the end, I think most people would say it came down to the need for change, and to the fact that (current Prime Minister Costas) Karamanlis was a little more charismatic than (PASOK leader George) Papandreou and people were tired of the same party being in power and abusing the power a little bit. But that’s an amateur’s perspective, although I’ve been coming to Greece for nine or 10 years now. I truly love it here. One of the reasons is that I think the Greek people are extremely well educated and politically sophisticated compared to a lot of places.
