It looks like our election results are going to play out in Greece too.

[Joanne98]

Yiannis Ragoussis, the interior minister, spelled out what the prime minister meant. The decision on whether to call a general election will hinge on the outcome of 13 contests for the powerful post of periferiarch (regional governor), the first time in Greece that senior administrators have been directly elected. If Pasok candidates for periferiarch trail their conservative New Democracy rivals by a wide margin, the government will seek a new mandate.

Pasok supporters appear to be uncertain. Many say they will cast a blank ballot, or simply stay away on election day. Wage cuts for public-sector workers—Pasok’s core constituency—have angered party loyalists. But few are likely to switch to New Democracy, which ran the country between 2004 and 2009 and is blamed for running up the huge deficits that took Greece to the brink of bankruptcy.

http://www.economist.com/node/17421404?story_id=17421404&fsrc=rss

Papandreou has been selling out his base so it looks like they're going to stay home.

[xchrom]

1. pain is a good teacher -- but people have to be willing to learn.

a two year old can learn not to touch the hot stove -- politicians? -- oy.

[RandomThoughts]

2. That metaphor does not see the entire equasion.

It is is also part of walk through the fire, you could say a fireman that rushes into a fire does the same thing as touching the stove.

So to understand the use of that metaphor you have to think on more variables, in its simplifying of the thought, it drops other effects of running into the fire.

Buffy Musical ~ Walk through the fire lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL0xN1R7qwM