From New Orleans

Dear Rui,

Now, you have put yourself under fire. All of us here at Portugal Contemporaneo will be watching your positions very closely. So, take care. Be prepared also to get a few insults from Cristina Keller, as she does not like your candidate and, as you know, she is far too much emotional. Oftentimes she thinks with her toe nails rather than with her brains.

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Now, I shall be measuring the liberalism of the candidates, if that is an important criterion, not primarily by their big talk about the size of government and other issues, but first of all by whether or not they are decent human beings. By a decent human being I mean one that treats other people well. This is for me the first and most important principle of liberalism. A society in which this principle is not met is, in the limit, a slave society.

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As you know, one of the greatest difficulties with right-wingers in Portugal is that they tend to become a bunch of caceteiros, exactly like the far-left. Some people from Atlântico and Cristina Keller are cases in point, even though the latter is getting a little better lately as uncle LR, myself and a couple of others from time to time hit her with a few nalgadas each. Since you are a very decent man - actually, a gentleman - I hope that your contribution to PPC campaign will enhance the quality of the debate within the right.

I wish you the best luck of all. Might your candidate win.

PA

(Now, I must run to the jazz festival that takes place here tonight)