The Clinton and Bush administrations were flummoxed by Hugo Chávez's anti-Americanism. Rabid and inexplicable, it started soon after Chávez was elected Venezuela's president in 1998. During his presidential campaign, on the other hand, he'd presented himself as a moderate seeking a "Third Way" between socialism and capitalism.Venezuela had traditionally been pro-American, aside from the occasional burning of an American flag outside the U.S. Embassy or a blood-thirsty mob attacking Vice President Richard Nixon's limo in 1958. The likes of Chávez had never been seen in a Venezuelan leader. What made Chávez tick? By 2004 -- well into President Bush's first term and six years into Chávez's -- Washington still apparently didn't know. However, the Bush administration finally wanted answers, having belatedly realized it had been distracted for too long by 9/11 and the war on terror.In Caracas, accordingly, a political officer at the...(Read Full Post)