As we gear up for the Jan 30 Iraqi elections, the administration wants desperately to lower the expectations of a free, fair, and complete election (since that will be impossible). The insurgency is blowing up polling stations and voters and the Sunni’s are threatening to not participate. Here’s the money quote:
U.S. Lowers Expectations On Iraq Vote (washingtonpost.com): The Bush administration played down voter turnout yesterday in determining the elections’ legitimacy and urged Americans not to get bogged in a numbers game in judging the balloting, a reflection of the growing concern over how much the escalating insurgency and the problem of Sunni participation may affect the vote.
‘I would . . . really encourage people not to focus on numbers, which in themselves don’t have any meaning, but to look on the outcome and to look at the government that will be the product of these elections,” a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity at a White House briefing yesterday. The official highlighted the low voter turnout in U.S. elections as evidence that polling numbers are not essential to legitimacy.
Yeah, see, but the problem in the low US-voter turnout isn’t due to gangs blowing up the polling station or an entire minority group bowing out of the election, it’s due to people across all walks of life who are way too complacent or apathetic about our political system.
Let’s put it this way: suppose in the 2004 presidential election that roving gangs were driving suicide car bombs into random polling stations in white suburban neighborhoods and the entire bloc of fundamentalist evangelical Christians were either prevented from voting or pledged not to vote. Do you think the election of President Kerry would be seen as legitimate under those circumstances?
