Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has just publicly conceded today's constitutional referendum, which among other things would have ended term limits for president and allowed him to run for re-election in 2012.

Details over at The Texas Blue, including a little blurb on how Bush must be horribly relieved that he doesn't have to worry about the failure of the CIA's coup attempt anymore.

I love the idea of public campaign financing.  I love the idea of making the candidate process accessible to anyone regardless of income, and I think it would be great if our elected officials could be less beholden to big-money interests.  But let's be honest — the only way public financing would work is if it were mandatory, so everyone would have to play by the same rules.  Otherwise, those with ties to those big-money interests could simply bypass public financing and raise much more than a public system would ever be able to provide.  And mandatory public financing is a tough sell to people who were elected by and whose incumbent advantage largely relies on the system as it stands now.  It will be a very long time before we see that happen, if at all.  And voluntary public financing is simply not viable.

Or is it?