"The company was completely on message, while the union was in disarray," Mr. Clay said.
So they have adopted a new message: while the vote was generally free of blatant fraud like ballot stuffing, the election itself was rigged from the beginning.
Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia called it an "unbalanced message," while the Chinese envoy, Li Baodong, said the resolution, in trying to predetermine the outcome of dialogue between the government and the opposition, "might further complicate the situation".
And, as elsewhere, Valencia's PP has another advantage, say its friends: like his views or not, Mr Aznar has a single, national message, while the Socialists trim from one region to the next.
The government has refused to rule out the use of taxpayer funds to sell its budget message, while the opposition has seized on an embarrassing leak on day one of the unofficial election campaign.
A couple of years ago, though, the group reached an understanding with the organizers of Fashion Week that allowed the activists to deliver their anti-fur message while the fashion world was in town.
