Will Berlusconi Win After All?

Now where is that picture of Truman holding a newspaper saying "Dewey wins"?

Alors que les sondages sortie de urnes et les premières projections donnaient, lundi 10 avril, l'union de gauche conduite par Romano Prodi gagnante dans les deux chambres du Parlement, la tendance s'est inversée au profit des partisans de Silvio Berlusconi en fin de journée.

All day long Le Monde has been treating us to news breaks that Berlusconi is finished. Citing 50 to 54% for Prodi to 45 to 49% for Il Cavaliere, they've been writing things like (caps theirs) "A SECOND EXIT POLL CONFIRMS THE VICTORY OF THE LEFT". Now, to say the least, they are hedging their bets; in fact, they almost seem to be admitting that Prodi has lost and (is it really necessary for us to point this out?) they are already brandishing the spectre of cheating or a bug. Oh, so that (and that only) would explain a Berlusconi vittoria (and their own blindness).

Obsessed by their anti-Bush bias, not many people (outside Italy) listened to the International Herald Tribune's John Vinocur.