Election Coverage

• I'm praying for the election in Iraq Thursday and I hope you are too. This will be the real thing, with real democratically elected officials taking real positions in a real functioning representative government… absolutely historic and a profound success (especially in less than three years… fast!!!). If you don't (or won't) see that, you need to ask yourself why. Why are you so skeptical and cynical about such a great thing? Why can't you rejoice for such an obviously good. And what does that say about you?
• I guess even a blind squirrel can find a nut. In spite of the constant haranging by some politicians and the evening news about how bad things are, the Washington Post published this letter from a Marine officer, which argues for optimism and confidence in the mission in Iraq. It's worth a read. It's also polar opposite of most the Post's coverage of Iraq just this week. Which begs the question: Why isn't the whole newspaper categorized as Opinion/Editorial?
• Rush Limbaugh played a recording today of an Iraqi woman who had voted saying, "If anyone does not appreciate what America has done, and President Bush… let them go to hell!" So, ma'am, how do you really feel? I'll bet you don't hear her quote on the evening news tonight.

• How many years will it be before everyone realizes that President Bush might deserve a Nobel Peace Prize?

Think about it for a moment. Do you want peace in the Middle East? A free and democratic Iraq will be "an anchor" for a better Middle East for decades to come. Look at what's happening in Lebanon and other Arab countries that are trying democracy for the first time. If we can just stick with it, Bush's influence on Iraq will change the world and make history like we've not seen in over 60 years.

Actually the Nobel Peace Prize is a joke and has been for over a hundred years. The list of awardees reads like a list of diplomatic failures-in-waiting. They have a nasty habit of giving the award to the brokers of peace treaties that fail within a few years (like the Dawes plan that helped cause World War 2). Several awards have been given for Middle East Peace (and peace in Africa, East Timor, Eastern Europe, North Korea, etc.) that has turned out to be non-existant. Good grief, they gave one to Yasser Arafat, an obvious terrorist, and Jimmy Carter, who didn't actually accomplish anything, and they nominated Adolf Hitler for the award in 1939! But will Ronald Reagan (for defeating communism) or George W. Bush (for creating democracy where everyone said it was impossible) ever be recognized? Probably not.