When the news broke about the Madrid bombings, I spent the better part of 2 days over on k5,
arguing vehemently
with both American and Spanish wingnuts, that the bombings were carried out by al-Quida, and not the ETA. At the time, exactly none of the American or British news outlets had printed anything except Aznar's story, and I got my information from the local (norwegian) press.
During the 2.5 days that it took for the story linked above to make it through the k5 approval process, it finally became clear that the Eta theory was a joke, and that the socialists had won, the wingnuts turned from outright dismissal to attacking Spainiards for giving in to terrorism.
Does today's early withdrawal mean the wingnuts are right? Are the spaniards somehow opting for the treaty offered by al-Quida, or is their immediete pullout indicative only of the deteriorating situation?
Over on k5, the balance between right and left is somewhat more on keel than is to be found here, although it's still slanted heavily towards the liberal side. But if you read the article above, you'll see that there is no shortage of right-wingers there, which nobody really minds, indeed it improves the discussion.
When the scope of the defeat became apparant, I felt vindicated, I guess, but I was also very impressed by the power of democracy in Spain. My contention then was that the Aznar lost because he was not forthcoming with the truth, and indeed, it seems clear in retrospect that he witheld evidence. If he had only told the whole truth, his party would not have lost the election.
Today, though, I felt a twinge of doubt. Therefore, please take my poll. I regret that I won't be able to engage you in discussion for long this evening, but my time zone means that I always miss the best part of the day for discussions.