Well, at least, a respite from the terror. A hefty majority of Iraqis support the incoming government and anticipate improvement in the coming months. The legitimacy test has been passed – for the moment. All the more reason for European allies and others to hang in there and help.
THE CASE FOR EDWARDS: To my mind, the obvious choice for veep for Kerry is John Edwards. Ruy Teixeira explains partly why. Edwards would appeal to a very important consituency – the non-unionized white working class. But he’s also more comfortable among African-Americans than Kerry. And, as the primaries show, he has real appeal to independents, who are still deeply resistant to Bush, especially after the president’s slavish courting of the religious right in recent months. At a deeper level, it seems to me that Kerry is a world-class crashing bore. It’s extremely hard to keep your eyes open listening to him drone on endlessly. Part of his recent success is due to his staying out of the limelight, while Bush self-destructs. And a responsible, tedious, upper-class pandescenderer, while appealing to some voters exhausted by the revolutionary zeal of the man from Midland, needs an adrenaline fix. Edwards, whatever his faults, has plenty of zip. People like him. No one really likes Kerry. Edwards also gets the fact that a successful Democratic candidate has to have soul and passion. He’s from the South – something that won’t mean much in terms of winning over any Southern states, but helps balance out Kerry’s Brahmin Yankeeness.
The Dish 