McCain's Insane...

Eugene Robinson

"The Democratic candidates are impolite enough to point out that the losses suffered by al-Qaeda in Iraq, which Bush and McCain love to cite, are really the vanquishing of a foe that could never have existed without the U.S. invasion. The Democrats also recognize that while U.S. forces are bogged down in Iraq, al-Qaeda is regrouping in Pakistan and plotting new attacks. They learned this from the Bush administration's own intelligence estimates.

The war is only one issue on which McCain, as the all-but-certain Republican nominee, is out of step with voters. Health care is another: While Clinton and Obama have offered far-reaching proposals to make health insurance available to millions of uninsured Americans, Republicans aren't offering so much as a bandage.

Or take the economy, which at present is the biggest issue in the campaign (and which McCain famously said he doesn't really understand that well). The Democrats have tapped into the widespread discomfort and insecurity that polls indicate many Americans feel, while McCain and the Republicans can only talk about more tax cuts and the eternal glory of free and unfettered markets.

Message: We don't care."

Eugene has a nice Op-ed up today, I recommend it...

Women Win In Pakistan...

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's opponents called on the key US ally to resign Tuesday after his backers conceded that voters dealt them a crushing defeat in general elections.

"Musharraf has said he would quit when people tell him. People have now given their verdict," said two-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the man Musharraf ousted in a bloodless coup in 1999.

Leading pro-democracy lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan, held under house arrest since Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in November, said the president should step down because he was the "most hated man in the country".

Musharraf's spokesman bluntly rejected calls for the president to stand down and said the former general was willing to work with whoever forms a government.

Preliminary results also showed a near total defeat for hardline Islamic parties that under the previous administration ruled Pakistan's North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.

With votes counted in 258 constituencies, the PML-Q(Musharraf's) and its allies had taken a total of 58 seats. The party's chief and several key members lost their seats in Pakistan's national assembly.

Even if the PML-Q won all the remaining seats not yet counted, they would not be able to attain a majority in the parliament, which has 272 elected and 70 unelected seats reserved for women and minorities.

State television said Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had 87 seats, Sharif's faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) had 66 seats, with the PML-Q, smaller parties and independents taking the rest, according to preliminary unofficial results.

The vote "means the forces of democracy and the rule of law have won," Talat Masood, a former general who is now a political and defence analyst, told AFP.

He said the election results also show that the previous government's support of the West and its "war on terror" have "been totally rejected by the people".

As long as total anarchy doesn't break out, this is probably good news. As always, the military, which is fairly pro-democracy with be the final arbiter.

I think another female leader might emerge soon, and that could be very good..