Rich Lowry

Hugo Chavez’s Cheering Section

Let us pause and reflect. The left’s favorite self-aggrandizing thug has shed this mortal coil. Hugo Chavez, R.I.P.

All the country’s least-reflective and most-reflexive ideologues of the left immediately issued warm farewells — Sean Penn, Michael Moore, Oliver Stone and, of course, the nation’s 39th president, Jimmy Carter.

Carter praised Chavez for his commitment “to bring profound changes to his country,” which, by installing himself as the effective president for life, he certainly did. Carter noted his “formidable communications skills,” a quality that is no...