I suppose we could have easily expected it, considering Brazilian President Lula hadn't imagined he'd be defending himself against a challenger at all, less mind one named 'Bolsonaro.'

Lula da Silva thought he had wrapped the pesky Bolsonaro family up in a neat package, with the help of his vampiric Supreme Court ally, Justice Alexandre de Moraes. 

The family's pater familias, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was locked under house arrest on a trumped-up sedition charge, one son was in exile, and, while the other son was running for president against Lula under his father's flag, the regime kept the pressure on, and no one seriously expected Flavio Bolsonaro to survive the first round.

Yeah. Lula thought he pretty much had it in the bag.

It turns out there was a hole in the bottom. Flavio Bolsonaro not only slipped through surviving, he took the brass ring.

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Now Lula has a serious problem. What was supposed to be one more cakewalk to another duly regime-engineered term as the country's ersatz democratically elected president has turned into a dogfight that has the eyes of the world on it. And worse - Lula under the harsh scrutiny of the United States and its president.

He is reacting badly.

The run-off election is three days from now, on Sunday the 25th.

This past Sunday's debate between the two contenders was a fiery, raucous affair, during which Lula threw threats around like Carnival confetti. 

EDUARDO BOLSONARO: 

3) DEBATE: LULA THREATENS FLÁVIO ON NATIONAL NETWORK If he wins, Lula will launch a witch hunt against @FlavioBolsonaro

 That's his proposal.

Lula has lost his mind, just as Olavo predicted. The rejection has arrived to stay. The demonstrations in Bahia, São Paulo, and other cities showed him that he doesn't have genuine popular support. On the 25th, it will be the end of his career. And we will thank God.

Brazilians watching were shocked by the incumbent's vicious, bald-faced promises of retaliation.

Lula threatens @FlavioBolsonaro right in the middle of a live debate by telling him: “You think you've already won the elections? Wait until the electoral process is over. You're going to lose your immunity and there are a lot of investigations in your life, and I'm going to set them in motion.”

All Lula could do besides threaten was sputter about Bolsonaro's fealty to the United States.

Firing off personal attacks, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing senator Flavio Bolsonaro held an acrimonious first debate on Sunday, a week before a tight presidential election run-off.

A chaotic exchange between the two men, who called each other liars on multiple occasions, accusing each other of corruption and dragging up various scandals, encapsulated the tone of a bitter election campaign in the deeply polarised nation.

Bolsonaro, 45, son of the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, secured a shock first-round lead over Lula earlier this month and polls predict a close battle for the runoff on October 25.

The two men sparred over the economy, public security, healthcare, corruption, and Brazil's ties to the United States.

I'm not sure if anything of substance was ever really debated.

..."Brazil is going to retire you," fired off Bolsonaro, seeking to unnerve his adversary by pacing up and down behind him throughout the debate in view of the camera, shaking his head, smirking and scoffing while his adversary spoke.

Lula called Bolsonaro "a habitual liar, a thug," and said he did not want to stand close to a "militiaman," alluding to his alleged ties to Rio de Janeiro's paramilitary groups.

Bolsonaro, who made several jabs about Lula's time jailed for corruption on charges that were later annulled, retorted that it was better he stay at a distance "because my wallet could be stolen."

Lula has slipped ahead in polling by a point or two. He's also got his machine in motion, working the student radicals at the universities. Much of the rhetoric being used to demonize Bolsonaro and warn against a possible victory should sound very familiar.

What should be a space for knowledge, critical thinking, and the exchange of ideas is turning into a radical political platform. Following the mobilizations at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, images from an assembly at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) in Curitiba expose inflammatory and fallacious speeches against Flávio Bolsonaro and in defense of Lula's reelection. The mobilization is nationwide: organizations have announced more than 40 events at universities across the country.

One participant urges militants to have "blood in their eyes." Another defends: "we need to radicalize our organizations." There are even references to the kidnapping of an ambassador during the military dictatorship, in a tone of ignorance and revolutionary exaltation. It's worth recalling the history: the American ambassador Charles Burke Elbrick was kidnapped in 1969 by members of the ALN and MR-8, armed struggle organizations, not by the National Union of Students (UNE).

False and alarmist predictions follow about a potential victory for Flávio Bolsonaro. Talk abounds of the loss of rights and threats to democracy, without presenting concrete measures to support such conclusions. The very debate on constitutional changes is treated as a threat, ignoring that amendments follow rules established by the Constitution itself.

There is no questioning of students' right to protest or support whomever they choose. What is questioned is the intellectual poverty of speeches that replace arguments with slogans, facts with fear, and the study of history with revolutionary nostalgia.

Brazil needs universities that train professionals, researchers, and free citizens, not militants who romanticize kidnappings, spread disinformation, and wield fear as a political weapon. It's shocking to see young people reproducing the rhetoric of revolutionary movements that left a trail of violence in history. Disagreeing with a liberal right-wing government is legitimate. Exalting guerrilla practices and treating opponents as enemies to be eliminated from the debate is the very negation of democracy. Brazil does not need a new generation of ideological fanatics masquerading as defenders of freedom.

Lula's trying his best to project an image of vitality after the much younger and charismatic Bolsonaro stole his thunder by being in the background of every shot during the debate.

Flavio Bolsonaro stole all the spotlight from Lula by walking behind him and maintaining his constant presence in every camera frame, contradicting him with his body language. Brilliant and effective. Absolute winner of the debate.

RUN, LULA, RUN!

And there is always the threat of an 18th-century vampire lurking in the wings, waiting to sweep into view and suck the lifeblood out of any challenge to Lula's supremacy from Bolsonaro.

Rumors are flying to that effect right now.

DELTAN DALLAGNOL:  Urgent: there are rumors in Brasília that Moraes may deliver a judicial coup on Flávio Bolsonaro's election at any moment. What point have we reached! 

Against judicial abuse and interference even in elections, vote Flávio Bolsonaro, 22.

Lula's threats are about to come true!  If this happens, the world will see that we have dictators in power, and then we will see the consequences.

Unlike other years when Lula and his henchmen could operate with impunity and Alexandre de Moraes wielded his illicit supreme judicial cudgel, this time the world is watching, and so is the Trump administration.

That knowledge may be part of why Lula seems so rattled and frantic. Perhaps he senses the threat from both sides - that a Bolsonaro could beat him fairly in a clean election and that if he acts according to his inner dictatorial demons to prevent it, he knows that Trump will act.

They have been calling Lula 'The Last Leftist Left.'

The alliteration almost really works, doesn't it?

I sure hope it does in real life after this coming Sunday, too - when we can add a couple more 'L' words.

When Lula, the Last Leftist Left, Loses and Leaves.