What A Sight
You can watch the Iraq election coverage on MSNBC and listen to the question “What will it take for these elections to be considered legitimate?” every 60 seconds or you can watch it on Fox News and see an ecstatic Geraldo comparing the sight of men and women voting in the first free elections ever to the first blacks voting during the Civil Rights era. Fox also has news of the suicide bombings which have taken place at various polling places across Iraq, but the mood is decidedly different, as was the coverage during the first weeks of the war.
It really is okay for journalists to be happy about seeing people vote for the first times in their lives. It is okay for a journalist to praise the courage of those people risking their lives and those of their families to vote. It is okay that news of the bombings is balanced with the statistics which put them into perspective. It is okay to show the proud Iraqi man marching to the polling place holding a huge Iraqi flag as his elderly mother and father walk alongside him. It is a moving sight, and it is a remarkable feat that elections are taking place today at all. Congratulations to the brave Iraqis casting their first votes today and to our brave men and women risking their lives to make it possible.
UPDATE: Deacon at Power Line has info I had not heard before about Iraqi expatriates in Syria being allowed to vote there.
-- Lorie Byrd