HAD ENOUGH?:

A right-wing resurgence: The end of the Swedish dream?: He looks like Iain Duncan Smith, but talks like David Cameron - and now Fredrik Reinfeldt is set to seize power in a country once hailed as a left-wing success story. (Stephen Castle, 15 September 2006, Belfast Telegram)

A young, right-wing politician emerges from nowhere, captures the centre ground and ousts a discredited government after more than a decade in power. On Sunday, the dream of every conservative may be realised, not in Britain but in Sweden.

The land of Volvo, Ikea and the much-vaunted Swedish social model may be on the threshold of a political earthquake. For the past 10 years, Göran Persson has been Prime Minister, leading one of the most formidable vote-winning machines in democratic politics. But opinion polls show Sunday's election is on a knife-edge. The remodelled, centrist, Swedish conservative party, known as the Moderates, led by 41-year-old Fredrik Reinfeldt, could emerge at the head of a new coalition. And, whatever the result, the traditional dominance of Sweden's left is under threat as the country asks itself whether its famous social model is all it is cracked up to be.

With even Sweden, Canada, Germany and France shifting Right does this really seem like Pelosi time?

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 15, 2006 5:00 PM