What They Wouldn't Give for a Two-Party System...

I'm fascinated by the Italian elections—by Italian politics, in general. According to the BBC, the election this year is the 62nd is 63 years. The last election was less than 2 years ago, when Romano Prodi's center-left party eked out a victory over Silvio Berlusconi's center-right (yeah, right—he's a big time, multi-billionaire conservative) party. Prodi almost resigned less than a year into his term because he found that he couldn't effectively govern the 39 parties in the Italian parliament (158 when you add in the local parties); ultimately, he finally threw in the towel in February after a second vote of no-confidence in the Senate. A big part of the problem is that Berlusconi, before he left office, created a situation that leaves Italy virtually ungovernable. Now, of course, Berlusconi is running again for the office and it seems entirely likely that he'll win. It's a two-day election, ending tomorrow, so we'll see results some time midday EDT... stay tuned...