Elections, Spin, and Memories 

Elections, Spin, and Memories

Tim Cavanaugh tries to avoid both the triumphalist camp and the "closing our eyes and covering our ears" camp that is somehow disappointed at a victory that Bush can take credit for. He acknowledges that the Bushies have done a great job of controlling spin. There's always a clear story line--with a focus on what is coming next. There is going to be an election (two years later) and behold, there is one, and it's quite successful. There are about 50 killings on election day--but it can truthfully be said that this is not bad by (the new) Iraq standards. Similarly if Qaddafi kidnaps only one Saudi prince, or the Turks round up only 50 Kurds, or Musharraf makes Pakistan more of a nuclear power while making noises about supporting Bush, these will all be signs that they are getting Bush's message.

Cavanaugh points out a bit wistfully that foreign countries come into brief and limited attention, and then are forgotten. Bosnia and Kosovo went quite well, on the whole (although that's not what Zakaria has said)--but they are forgotten. Haiti got an election, at American insistence, and it is a nightmare.

Maybe a political scientist could at least offer a study of countries where elections were held for the first time in decades, or the first time ever, and the results were not very good. Somalia may be another example. This would not be to provide a commentary on Iraq or its neighbours, you understand--and certainly not any kind of prediction--it would just be political science, which has wisely been described as an oxymoron.