If we congratulate ourselves for voting and then fail to mount sustained grassroots pressure, he will ultimately either vacillate before, or be vanquished by, the stultifying institutions he will confront in DC.
And that is how it came to be that the first person to congratulate David Cameron after the vote total in his Witney constituency was announced was Howling Hope, who wore the yellow-and-black ribbon of the Monster Raving Loony Party, with a matching glittery bow tie and a white Boss Hogg-type suit and hat.
But the EU economic affairs minister Pierre Moscovici congratulated Athens, calling the vote "another step forward for Greece".
"I congratulate the millions who voted," said Ponta, referring to the projected 85% of ballots cast said to support impeaching the president.
The gun lobby is congratulating itself on this vote, aiming to use the recall as the ultimate warning against politicians who might abandon timorousness in the gun control debate.
One such group was the United Seniors Association, whose national spokesman, Art Linkletter, took to the airwaves this spring, congratulating lawmakers who voted to add prescription drugs to Medicare.
After the general election on May 11th, he congratulated Pakistanis for voting in huge numbers, despite threats from an "insignificant and misguided" TTP.Diplomats who know the general are convinced this is not just rhetoric.
And the moment the Interior Ministry declared Ahmadinejad winner of last week's election, the Leader congratulated him, although votes had not been counted in all districts.
According to Whitehurst, who wrote to congratulate Boulton, not a single vote was cast against him.
