摘要：Traian Băsescu defied the East European convention and narrowly won a second presidential term despite the formidable array of opponents confronting him. There were still numerous undecided voters despite his steady decline in the polls over the last year and he reconnected with a lot of them in a skillfully-fought campaign. But it was his opponents who decided the contest through their complacency and the elementary mistakes of a second-round candidate who was simply no match for Băsescu. He proved to be the least of the evils on offer and the drama of the second round produced a surprisingly high turnout contrary to the predictions of analysts who assumed that voters had grown steadily more depoliticized. He then went on to obtain his second mandate from voters who were encouraged to make their selection on aesthetic grounds far more than programmatic or ideological ones.
