It isn't so much that the Spanish people want to inflict harsher austerity measures on themselves. It's that the socialists have botched things so badly, that the center right candidate will win pretty much by default. Madrid-based Soren Kern participating in a symposium on the Spanish election at PJ Media: Spain is split down the middle between the political left and right, although Spanish society leans just enough to the left so that left-wing parties normally have a slight edge at the polls. Conventional wisdom holds that the PP usually only wins if the PSOE screws up. Because the PSOE clearly has political ownership of the current economic crisis in Spain, the PP will benefit at the polls this time around. Nevertheless, there is little enthusiasm in Spain (either on the left or on the right) for the PP candidate, Mariano Rajoy. He is widely viewed as having the aura of a loser, having lost two previous elections against the PSOE (in 2004 and 2008). The only reason Rajoy is the...(Read Full Post)