Venezuela’s recent referendum was about a substantial concentration of executive powers in the office of the Venezuelan president. The question was whether it is a good idea to remove democratic safeguards in the Venezuelan constitution, embolden the president, and trust him to such an extent that term limits ought to be removed. It was not a vote about political doctrines of the traditional “right” (often mistaken for capitalism) in contrast to the “left” and populist-socialist measures.

The referendum was defeated by a very narrow margin. The votes in favor were split: those that favoured such changes were typically from rural, poor areas while the opposition was from the city dwellers that have a higher standard of living.

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One thing a president, or a superpower, cannot afford is to be ridiculous. Nevertheless, George Bush lurched into that fatal category and true twilight of his presidency with all the discomfiture that he earned. The about-face of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), originally requested by Congress to update rudimentary knowledge of Iran, flew in the face of the fabrications, hallucinations and innuendoes pigeonholed as the “foreign policy” of a world power. Although it was finalized two months ago, the NIE was the subject of a drawn-out, agonized debate about leaks of such facts. (The Washington Post reported that the White House disclosed it to Congress and allies after sharing the report with Israel, a foreign nation.)

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**Editor's Note: This piece was written in response to a question asking panelists to choose the best of six proposals on how to move forward on climate change. Read More Panelist Views**

Oh, sure! A meeting in Bali, about a 16-year-old festering document, is going to change the rigid mindset of the whole world! The hollow words like roadmaps, consensus and “leadership” really ought to do it this time!

More seriously, I think these challenges must first compel us into a paradigm shift and a modernization of principles--security, competition, fairness and development. Without rewired logic, none of the proposed methods will happen. All will heap on the last pile of broken promises.

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The Question: After Benazir Bhutto's assassination on Thursday, what's next for Pakistan?

Welcome to Crossed Wires Central of opaque politics, in a Non-Proliferation Treaty non-signatory member called Pakistan, where the political process is plagued by exponential variants of extremism while players might wear uniforms, civilian western-style clothes or traditional robes as they co-exist and befriend drug lords, game the intelligence apparatus, blend in as university professors, or expediently co-exist with the newly regrouped Taliban, lawyers, facilitators for al-Qaeda, or the visiting president of Afghanistan.

A large corps of retired military chiefs can serve as the nexus or the guiding hands in the background where there are no dividing lines and where principles are rather fluid. Typical political players could be any combination of the above in a puzzling Byzantine and or Faustian combination, layered with tribal allegiances that often trump national cohesion. Thus, the vapid political process is subordinated to names, personalities and proven politics rather than a process of politics that is neither democratic nor totalitarian. Throughout its sixty-year history, all new political faces have either been the product of coups or the assassination of a tribal elder. None have climbed the ordinary process of political concurrence or the rise through the ranks of a multi-party system.

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