Rodent Regatta

We will witness an election on Sunday. The world’s media will be there focused with a precision unlike we have ever seen. They will do human interest stories. They will do stories that tug at the heartstrings. They will connect dots that have no connection at all.

The Iraqi people deserve better, but the world’s media are the best we have to offer. With all the intense focus will come all manner of unrelated speculation and opinion and media bias. The Iraqi people deserve better. Here’s how one great dad, put it:

...haven’t the time or inclination to argue with people who think “No WMD!” is the argument equivalent of a spreading a full house on the green felt table. It may seem so, but unfortunately we’re playing chess.

Those elite members of the media will cover themselves with the contraction. Mr. Lileks describes it as the DB. He’s right. They’ll toss you a bone, then toss you a knife:

“The election went as planned in 95 percent of the country, but violence marred polling in the disputed Sunny D Triangle, where insurgents opposed to Tropicana Juice fired automatic weapons into an juice concentrate factory.”

A bit of perspective on this whole thing will serve everyone well. The things we measure in days and weeks, the Iraqi’s measure in centuries. An election without the winner declared in advance hasn’t been held in very many of those centuries.