Roger Noriega, Claudia Rosett, Caroline Glick, and Andy McCarthy

Latin America analyst ROGER NORIEGA takes a look at Hugo Chavez’s less-than-surprising triumph in the Venezuelan presidential election this past Sunday. While Chavez may be the winner in the present, however, the campaign took a toll on his already frail health, and the Venezuelan opposition has been heartened by its moderate successes. A leadership crisis may not be far off. CLAUDIA ROSETT, writer at Pajamas Media and Forbes.com, gives a preview of what is likely to be discussed at Wednesday’s congressional hearing on the recent attack of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. According to Rosett, from the very beginning the Obama administration’s official story  flew in the face of all available facts, largely because of an unwillingness to recognize that terrorism still exists. CAROLINE GLICK of the Center for Security Policy discusses how the no-show of U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice to Netanyahu’s U.N. speech is simply a continuation of the Obama administration’s trend of alienating its allies in the Middle East. This separation is particularly dangerous as it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Iran would be willing to give some tips on building nuclear weapons to its long-time friend the Muslim Brotherhood. Former federal prosecutor ANDY McCARTHY comments on Mitt Romney’s  foreign policy speech given at VMI on Monday. Romney is running the risk, he says, of falling into the trap of seeing an automatic friend in every democracy.  The Obama administration’s purchase of the Thomson prison, meanwhile, is giving the country a sneak peak of the danger to come after the election.