The American mainstream media has discovered Jair Bolsonaro:

“Mr. Bolsonaro’s injuries could force him to sit out the next week or two in the hospital, but there was widespread agreement on Friday that the stabbing was likely to extend his lead. … “This plays straight into his message: the security issues, the violence and the need to address those issues,” said Monica de Bolle, the director of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University. “There are still a lot of undecided voters. It might be that a number of them now say ‘Bolsonaro is our guy.’” Speaking with difficulty after his surgery in a video posted to social media, Mr. Bolsonaro thanked God and the medical staff for saving his life. “I prepared myself for a moment like this because you run risks,” he said, before asking, “Could it be that human beings are so bad? I’ve never done anything bad to anyone.” … Wall-to-wall coverage of the attack and interviews with two of Mr. Bolsonaro’s sons, who are also running for office, have already vastly increased his presence on prime time television. This will offset his paltry 15 seconds of free television campaign time and small share of public campaign financing — both a result of his failure to make alliances with major political parties.”

It took long enough. I’m sure it is because the conventional wisdom in Washington was that he would lose in the runoff in October so they didn’t want to draw attention to it. The Brazilian media had also been ignoring his campaign until the assassination attempt went viral.

The German mainstream media is worried too:

“Nevertheless, Ricardo Ismael believes that the assassination attempt will increase Bolsonaro’s chances. He was already considered a “mito” (a “myth”) among his supporters, and now the role of victim has been added. “The Bolsonaro voters discourse is that he was to be murdered so that he would not become president,” said Ismael. “Among the voters who have not yet been decided, he is likely to have gained sympathy and votes through the assassination attempt.” … Bolsonaro’s supporters have been almost euphoric on social media. Now their “myth” can no longer be stopped, they have written. Bolsonaro’s son, Flavio, is also confident of victory. “A message to the bandits: You have just elected the president, and he is going to win in the first ballot.”

Huff Post also has a big article:

Are we heading into a “democracy recession”? Brazil is the fourth largest democracy in the world and the most powerful nation in Latin America. This is a big domino that could fall.

The New Republic has an article comparing Lula and Bolsonaro to Obama and Trump:

What does it mean, shitlibs?

We’ve been told this is a white supremacist hand gesture.



