Limits of 21st-century revolution

Hugo Chávez has narrowly lost his latest attempt to push forward a revolutionary socialist agenda. His oil-rich country, still bent on humbling the United States, is an instructive place from which to view the world, so here are eight rules of modern political life as seen from Venezuela: 1.) Trade trumps politics. Even as Chávez has been calling President George W. Bush "the devil," U.S.-Venezuela commercial ties have blossomed. This is the Western Hemisphere's equivalent of the Taiwan-China relationship: political enemies engaged in booming business. Bilateral trade will be about $47 billion this year, up from 2006, with Venezuelan exports... IHT