Source: Reuters, via Yahoo!

Colombia is headed for the polls today, and wonderful President Alvaro Uribe is likely to win in a landslide.

He only needs to get past the 50-percentage point mark to avoide a runoff, and that’s likely to be a piece of cake for him. He’s got a 30-point lead in the polls over his nearest rivals.

It’s not hard to see why. Uribe’s brought confidence, security and prosperity to Colombia, something it’s not seen in decades, something that looks so fresh, so beautiful, so different, so amazing … how could Colombians not pass up on such a fabulous prospect? They see it right in front of them!

What’s more, he’s got a great campaign platform. Bloomberg reports:

For his second term, Uribe, 53, promises to provide health care to all of Colombia’s 41 million inhabitants, ensure every child receives education and make loans available for the poor to set up businesses. He also plans to cut the rate of taxation on personal and corporate income and reduce a tax on financial transactions.

Although Uribe looks like a wimp, and having been a Harvard professor, he’s a nerd of sorts, he’s anything but a wimp. No current leader anywhere in the hemisphere has shown the courage against violent Marxist narcoterrorist guerrillas that he has, his resolve to destroy them unwavering. Not only that, despite his always looking ill-at-ease in pictures, he’s got a silver tongue for words that sings to the hearts of Colombians. His appeal is huge, it’s just not obviously visible to us here in the states.

But what he does and who he is are clearly obvious. Number one, he’s a bona fide, no apologies, ally of ours. How many leaders, besides the notable Tony Blair and John Howard, do we see like that? He’s one of them. Uribe’s resolute in destroying the dopers who plague both our countries, vowing to sacrifice all he can to do that. He never steals any of the puny paltry aid money we give him (it’s only a couple billion spread over several years and that’s very low by U.S. aid standards, especially for such an important war being fought) and he’s never let it corrupt anyone. He is proudly free trade, and signed a free trade pact with us, so that ties between our two great countries can grow closer and stronger. He’s enacted free market policies to make his country strong and prosperous because that’s the best way to fight Hugo Chavez (and eeeuw, how’s you like him for your next door neighbor?) Colombia’s economy has blossomed as a result. Lastly, crime has gone way down in Colombia, with murders down 37% and kidnappings down 72%. Tourism is awakening. People are no longer scared to walk around in the big cities because the killers and kidnappers are gone.

Very quietly, Uribe’s the hemisphere’s star leader and Colombia’s voters are going to give him a second term to finish the great job he started. He’s a marvel. With Uribe’s real and Reaganesque leadership, somehow Colombia’s voters aren’t impressed with populism the way other, leaderless nations are. Let’s see those results in action – because for all we know, maybe they will tell voters elsewhere that other choices than populism are possible.

iViva Colombia!

Counting ballots in Colombia. Source: El Tiempo

Colombians arriving at the polls. Source: Gustavo Bandres, El Universal

Uribe waiting in line to vote. Source: Reuters, via Yahoo!

UPDATE: Reuters reports that the election is peaceful and serious, and the guerrillas are nowhere in sight – democracy has advanced so strongly that even the guerrillas are telling people to go vote. Tell me that isn’t a sign of the guerrillas being on the run. Compare and contrast to Uribe’s first election a few years ago – guerrillas were shooting people standing in voting lines. No more. It’s called the scent of victory, and I don’t mean just electoral. Read it here.

BLOG ROUNDUP:

Steven Taylor at PoliBlog has a copy of the actual Colombian ballot here. He’s also got profiles of Uribe’s opponents here and here. And here, he discusses media exaggeration of the rise in the polls of one of Uribe’s opponents, but has some thoughts on how new parties are rising in Colombia, something that, in my opinion is healthy in a democracy.

Matthew Shugart at Fruits and Votes thinks this election will be historic, not just because Uribe is the first guy who can run for a second term, but because the election will probably diminish the once-dominant liberal party, which may make room for new left parties to emerge. Read it here.

Adam Isacson at Plan Colombia and Beyond, a critic of the drug war, has a writeup of all the candidates’ positions on the war on drugs here. You can see the absolutist stance against drugs and the no-apologies friendship with the U.S. throughout the Uribe profile – a valuable post indeed.

Jefferson Morley at Washington Post has a good primer on what’s going on in this election and why it matters. Read it here.

Andres Mejia-Vergnaud at VCrisis has an excellent essay discussing how market-friendly Alvaro Uribe is – he is, with a couple caveats. It can be read here.

Randy Paul at Beautiful Horizons says he’s not a big fan of Uribe and worries about the concentration of power he will amass if he pulls off this election as strongly as polls indicate. He thinks how Uribe governs should affect how the U.S. dispenses its aid. His item can be read here.

FIRST RESULTS:

El Espectador seems to report that President Uribe has a powerful lead of 69.14%, against his nearest rival, Carlos Gaviria, with 19.80%, in first results. It needs to be better confirmed, but here it is.

El Tiempo reports President Uribe is winning big, in early results. He’s got 64% of the vote, with his nearest rival, Carlos Gaviria, getting 22.97%, with 1.6% of the vote counted. The story in Spanish is here.

Bloomberg reports that Uribe’s got it in the bag, with about 60% of the vote, against Gaviria’s 24%, and about 13% of the vote counted. Stock market’s already going hog wild, gaining 8% just last Friday, and about 800% since Uribe took office. Read it here.

BLOG REACTION:

Boz at Bloggings by Boz has a great concise list of five important points to understand and note about President Uribe in his reelection victory. It’s well worth reading here.

Jim Hoft at GatewayPundit has a terrific first-rate roundup on Uribe’s background, his views and his implications for those of us in the U.S, along with a great collection of photos here.

Steven Taylor at PoliBlogger has the third – and most important – in his series on Colombia’s candidates, on who President Uribe really is. It’s excellent reading here. He’s also got a discussion on what a growing new left movement means for Colombia. The group that’s now making a respectable showing is not enough to knock out Uribe this time, but represents a new development on the Colombian political scene.

Miguel Octavio at Devil’s Excrement in Caracas compares and contrasts Colombia’s swift electoral results with Venezuela’s $300 million ultramodern system that still hasn’t managed to get the results of the December 2005 congressional race tallied. Read it here.

Daniel Duquenal at Venezuela News & Views has a BRILLIANT and thoughtful post with tons and tons of fun facts about the election – such as the fact that almost all the expat Colombians in Bolivia and on border with Venezuela voted for Uribe in much higher percentages than ordinary Colombians. Bogota, too. I take issue with his calling Uribe an ‘authoritarian,’ but overall, it’s a juicy, meaty post-election analysis, completely riveting, wonderfully informed and an absolute must-read here.

Adam Isacson at Plan Colombia and Beyond who is an Uribe critic, has a pessimistic take on how tough and trouble-plagued Uribe’s second presidential term is likely to be. It’s good reading anyway, but I disagree with some of his views on Uribe not caring about ending poverty or stomping out AUC guerrillas or fostering civil society. Based on what I seen and read of Uribe, he explicitly cares about those things and intends to focus hard on them. Not only that, I would argue that he’s discounting the ongoing progress on them. Unlike Bolivarian Venezuela, Colombia has a diversified economy that’s actually growing. Anyway, it’s a nicely written piece here.

UPDATE: And here is something we needed! Tom at An American In Colombia has on-the scene observations and photos of the election in action. It’s two great in-depth pieces on the meaning of the election and the feeling in the streets. It’s a must-read here and here. Oh, and … catblogging, too! You gotta click on!

ONE MORE THING:

One last thing, not really a blog report, just a blogger’s note: Juan Forero of The New York Times is a Colombian from New Jersey with a well-known grudge against President Uribe. Forero absolutely hates the guy. His report is predictably like swallowing castor oil, but what’s really funny is his headline, which he may or may not have written – it’s ‘Bush Ally Coasts To Second Term In Colombia.’ If Forero wrote it, it’s because he knows that that’s the best way to make New York Times readers hate the guy as much as he does. Bush wasn’t part of this election at all, Uribe is no particular ally of Bush, he’d be friends with whoever is in office, and Forero has to go bring up Bush, he can’t stand to mention anything about Colombia’s democracy or Colombia’s issues – Bush is the best shorthand for anything odious, ain’t that right, Juan? Even more telling, the NY Times changed the word “Bush Ally” to the more accurate “U.S. Ally” in its story later (it since looks like it’s back to “Bush Ally”) because someone obviously caught the bias and made an amendment. You can just see the uncorrected original on Google here and the Times story here. Note also that the Forero story has an especially unflattering picture of Uribe, unlike the rest of the media. Forero just can’t help himself!