After a somewhat long and sort of contentious attempt to get his name on the presidential ballot in Haiti this month, it appears Wyclef Jean will absolutely, positively not get the chance to lead that nation out of its current troubles. The last word comes from one of Haiti's electoral council lawyers, who states that Jean is not allowed to appeal the council's ruling denying his candidacy eligibility under Haitian law. That means, unless Jean is somehow able to convince the Haitian government (and by his recent Twitter activity maybe he can "convince" them with money) to allow temporary residents to run for president in the next week, he must seek a political career elsewhere or not at all, or start living in Haiti permanently now and run in four years. Though the latter, judging by the electoral commission's rejection of Raymond Joseph for candidacy despite his current position as Haiti's ambassador to the United States (he's also Jean's uncle), seems unlikely to make a difference no matter how long he waits.
However, being the type of people who encourage other people to follow their dreams, we say to Wyclef Jean, if he's not interested in hunkering down in Port-au-Prince, come home to New York, where there is ample opportunity on the horizon as long as Mayor Bloomberg doesn't extend term limits again. Not that we'd be all that mad after his second cogent defense of religious tolerance and general sanity yesterday.
