This time around, it appears there is little room for the unexpected. Little room, I say, because Kirchner will most probably be handing over the reigns of the kingdom to his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. She is a senator but has lived the life of a president - or more - during her campaign, travelling all over the world, shying away from the real topics of interest and spreading much needed warmth towards the international community and investors. She has shown much disregard for the internal problems and has minimized critical issues (official statistics mishandling, recurring energu crises, lack of FDI, etc.)
Will it be enough for her to wind? No one cares. She and her husband have done far more than the opposing parties, who faced somewhat of a paradox. Alone, no one candidate can dispute a strong second position and pray for a second round; and together, they all ran the risk of repeating - at least in the voters' minds - past-alliances' mistakes and dilapitading all of their political capital in one swift move. So, the only chance to aim for a ballotage was doomed because the same rationale was applied in 1999 for De La Rúa and the Alianza, and it ended in the
2001/2002 implosion. And running alone assured failure.
Is there room for a grand gesture on behalf of a candidate to try to re-build bridges and consolidate a 30% + vote percentage to force a second round? It seems not. The enormous ethical/moral grandstand that some candidates have adopted definitely leaves little space for bridge-building. In fact, some candidates are so keen on getting their way that they do not realize they might jeopardize the greater good in so doing.What now? The answer comes from the same place it has for he past 21 years for out soccer fanaticismo: we get to wait four more years - and pray we can save ourselves so we don't need a Maradona doing our dirty work and generating a false sense of supremacy.
