Post-election analysts may be no more successful than pre-election pollsters in explaining why Nicaraguans chose Violeta Chamorro over Daniel Ortega. In the US, right-wing Reaganites invested emotional energy into demonizing Ortega as a dictator unwilling to yield power. The Nicaraguans confounded that theory.

Moreover, having supported the election of Chamorro, the US must, to shore up the Chamorro regime, match the millions it spent trying to overthrow Ortega. Ortega's defenders in the US, if they love Nicaraguans and not just Sandinistas, must now rally to Chamorro.