This makes me want to move to Chile. A female socialist atheist president? Holy Crap!

Congratulations to Chile. Hopefully she will represent liberal causes and prove to be progressive voice in South America without the shiftiness of Chavez. I've heard our Venezuelan prankster is something of an anti-semite, which is a universally recognized bellweather for idiocy. (To bypass latimes registration, right click and do a "save link target as" then save it and read it from your desktop)

I feel an irrational optimism about South America. They seem to be emerging from a long dark age inflicted by the cold war and the U.S.'s take no prisoners attitude towards progress in these states which were already victims of European imperialism. We've always maintained a self-superior attitude towards these countries, but it seems like some day soon people might start pursuing opportunities south of the border rather than the reverse. Good for them!