Brazil Re-Elects Leftist President

(Sao Paulo, Brazil) Sure, he's corrupt and under investigation for electoral malfeasance. However, the voters ignored those aspects of his first term as they must have also ignored a relatively sluggish economy and 10 percent unemployment. None of these factors deterred Brazilian voters from re-electing Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva as President.

From WaPo:

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won a landslide victory giving him a powerful mandate to press his anti-poverty campaign, but corruption scandals dogging his leftist party and thinner support in Congress could mar his second term.

Silva beat his center-right opponent, former Sao Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin, by 61 to 39 percent of the votes cast. It's believed that Silva's expansion of the Family Allowance program, which gives 11 million poor families monthly government checks, assured him enough voters for victory.

On the positive side, although Silva is a typical socialist, he's not considered as strident as Venezuela's Chavez and Bolivia's Morales, fellow South American leaders. I think that means Silva will confiscate property, imprison citizens and execute opponents at a slower rate.