[suarezn]

Hey Tallman have you met Talldrink? Maybe you guys can hook up and have tallkids...Sorry couldn't help myself.

On a more serious note...

I do believe that visiting/living in other countries definitely opens your mind and gives you exposure to other ways of doing things which is a good thing. Would that make you a "good" politician in The DR? That all depends on the person as it has already been mentioned here. First thing is that for you to qualify for certain positions you must have been born in The DR (Not sure if diputado is one of them), but definitely President and Senator.

In Leonel's case he was born in The DR then moved to The US. He was educated in The US only through high school. He then moved back to The DR and went to college at UASD. I think this gave him a limited vision of what life can be outside of The DR (thus his insistence in trying to turn DR into a small version of NY City) while at the same time giving him a good understanding of how politics work in The DR (UASD was at the time THE center of political subversion, learning, etc...). He understands that even if you do have the vision of seeing The DR become a "Nueva Yol Chiquito" you have to pay the piper and play ball with the people who really control The DR (A few families, military, etc). I believe he would like to fight corruption, but knows he can't go too far before he starts losing the support of these factions. He's studied Balaguer and Machiaveli and he's becoming very good at playing the game...

I think a person who only has the US experience would not make a very successful politician in The DR. You have to live it and learn it on the ground down there, not just the theory...You can have the best of intentions, but in the end if you don't give out funditas and envelopes stuffed with pesos you're probably not going to win anything.

I can tell you that the first battle you'd have to fight will be that your opponent will paint you as someone who comes from the outside and doesn't really understand the Dominican plight...someone who grew up with all the comforts of life (even if you didn't), thus doesn't know what is like to be poor, what is like to live without electricity and water, what is like to not have enough food to feed your kids, etc, etc, etc...

I think anyone who comes from outside The DR and wants to run for any office has to first live down there 24X7 for at least 8 years and become very involved with the community, and with whatever political party you align yourself with...