Boxing Berlusconi

I dig Berlusconi. The polls opened today and stay open through tomorrow (how harrowing). India Daily reports

The House of Freedoms coalition of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is seeking a second term in office, was in statistical tie with former Prime Minister Romano Prodi and his Union coalition in the last polls taken before the election.

I can't believe a statistical tie. It sounds like our exit polling here that out Kerry firmly ahead. LIE! The heavy turnout, close to 68%, is a fortuitous harbinger of an engaged electorate (Israel take note). Stephania over at Pajama Media here;

I think that we can start saying that such high turnout was unexpected, above all among the leftists.

The leftists thought that a low turnout would mean that those disappointed and undecided would stay home — possibly granting an easy victory to Prodi’s center-left.

Berlusconi is my kind of man. Unafraid and comfortable in his own skin. Willing to call a terrorist a terrorist. So my fingers are crossed. He is an ally and a man with a spine. No metrosexual he.

Rare indeed.

UPDATE: Exit polls show Prodi leading

Two exit polls indicated Monday that challenger Romano Prodi's center-left coalition was set to beat Premier Silvio Berlusconi's forces in Italian parliamentary elections.

Two Nexus polls indicated that Prodi's coalition received between 50 and 54 percent of the vote in both the upper and lower chambers of parliament, while Berlusconi's coalition received between 45 and 49 percent.

I will wait till the fat lady sings, but if true Europe is sick, much sicker than  I even thought. Soft and decaying.

UPDATE: Perhaps this will have the unintended consequence of influencing today's voters in Italy.

UPDATE: Video: Italy's election is too close to call (Romano Prodi's center-left coalition appears winning control in the lower house of parliament, with 49.8 percent of the vote compared to 49.7 won by Berlusconi's conservatives. The winning coalition is automatically awarded 55 percent of the seats and Berlusconi's center-right coalition held a one-seat lead in the Senate, although six seats elected abroad were still to be counted.) More here

Berlusconi, a 69-year-old media mogul and Italy's longest-serving premier since World War II, was battling to capture his third term with an often squabbling coalition of his Forza Italia party,  National Alliance, pro-Vatican forces and the anti-immigrant Northern League.

The 66-year-old Prodi, a former premier, was making his comeback bid with a potentially unwieldy coalition of moderate Christian Democrats, Greens, liberals, former Communists and Communists.

How could this have been so close?