Oh, so THAT'S how Democracy works!

Bush's Almanac

Out of fear, most of the candidates who have filed to run for the (Iraqi) national assembly will not identify themselves publicly; they simply name the party slate they're running on. Many have stopped campaigning. One campaign leaflet, for the United Iraqi Alliance, gave the names of 37 of its candidates but withheld 188 others. "Our apologies," the flyer read, "for not mentioning the names of all the candidates. But the security situation is bad, and we have to keep them alive."

Even the international observers for this election have taken the unusual step of staying out of Iraq-they'll be doing their monitoring from Jordan.

Ah yes…free and democratic elections! Ladies and gentlemen! I give you the success of the American campaign in Iraq!