The king of the lefty bloggers, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos, has an interesting take on the Iraqi elections. While getting in the obligatory shots at the President for his mishandling of everything, and while unconvinced that things are now going to go swimmingly in Iraq, he does seem to be rooting for success for the Iraqis, and is aware that something positive has just happened with the elections.

Since many on the hard left have been rooting for failure of our mission in Iraq (the better to trash the President) and a few America—haters have been openly rooting for the insurgent killers, this is progress, I suppose. It also perhaps reflects a dramatic reshaping of the political climate in the last month. The President's poll ratings are no longer in free fall since he went on the attack against his critics and began to more forcefully defend the Iraq mission. The elections have also helped.

Suddenly, Jack Murtha and Cindy Sheehan are yesterday's news.

Richard Baehr   12 18 05