100 monkeys typing.

Ink Stained Fingers

Kudos to the Iraqi people for what appears to have been a successful election. I find many aspects fascinating.

1. How the media and administration call it a complete success before counting begins.
   
2. How quickly the bloom faded once jury selection started in the Michael Jackson case.
   
3. The degree to which the administration is banking on this being a turning point.
   
4. The speed at which the world was willing to overlook the criminally tragic approach to the invasion now that an election has been held.
   
5. How much more important it is to the war bloggers that everyone in Iraq be able to vote while castigating the American left for raising voting lines as an issue here.
   
6. How success can be declared when no defined criteria has been established.
   

The best comment on the turnout came from a Canadian friend who wrote.

Not a partisan thing, just a statement about complacent electors. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing (but telling) if Iraqi voter turnout ends up being higher than your last election (60.7%) and our last election (60.5%), given the slightly reduced chance of getting blown up at a polling station in Canada or the US?

Lazy good-for-nothing North Americans…

Damn, if he don't have a point. Maybe we need more risk.

More of a risk than the looming threat of a non-sequiturial mandate.

What might such people lose? They would lose power. A successful outcome in Iraq would isolate the isolationists more effectively than at any time since World War II. It would also give President Bush more power to push through Congress his domestic agenda, including Social Security reform, tort reform, tax reform and, most importantly, a realignment of the Supreme Court along constitutional lines.

How does an election in an occupied country justify increasing our debt, futzing with Social Security and packing the Supremes with right wingers?

Posted by kerry at February 1, 2005 04:25 AM | TrackBack