Sunday, January 29, 2006

Tarja Halonen Headed for Re-Election






Halonen is the president of Finland, and yes, she is a woman. It looks like she has been elected for another term:

With 99.9 percent of votes counted, Halonen had 51.8 percent against Sauli Niinisto's 48.2 percent. Voter turnout was 77 percent.

A 77 percent voter turnout! And did you notice that they use paper ballots?

I'm not terribly aware of Halonen's politics in general, but one thing I do like about her: She refuses to have "an extreme makeover" to look like the marketable notion of a female president. She just keeps dying her hair bright red, probably at home, and smiling away. There is something very refreshing about that, given the rarity of average-looking older women in the media.