Word: questionable
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...life counseling will be dropped from the health-reform legislation. But that's a small point, compared with the larger issue that has clouded this summer: How can you sustain a democracy if one of the two major political parties has been overrun by nihilists? And another question: How can you maintain the illusion of journalistic impartiality when one of the political parties has jumped the shark? (See pictures of angry health-care protesters...
What's the optimal outcome for the U.S. in Thursday's Afghan election? In the last presidential race in 2004, that question would have been a no-brainer. Hamid Karzai was Washington's man, campaigning as the incumbent in Afghanistan's first post-Taliban election, having been installed by international edict after the U.S.-led invasion...
Despite its frustrations with Karzai, however, the U.S. is not pinning its hopes on the incumbent being replaced. "Although the election is very important, It would be a mistake to put too much importance on its outcome," suggests Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations. "The question of which personality is president may be less important than the structure of governance in Afghanistan. If Karzai were to lose, the next incumbent would face many of the same pressures that Karzai has faced. There are serious structural problem of splintered power and authority, and central government weakness, that would affect...
...promised governorships to three times more such leaders than there are provinces. The reality is that Karzai's top running mates are the equivalent of warlords, and he [has] done everything possible to buy the election long before the vote will actually occur. As a result, the real question is how many Afghan voters will actually stay bought when they go to the polls." (Read a story about the Taliban threat to disrupt the Afghan election...
...Candace Rondeaux, Afghanistan analyst for the International Crisis Group, says the insecurity and questions about the value of the vote "given the potential for fraud has kept a number of voters from the polls." A low turnout will do "little to enhance the sense that all Afghans are included in the democratic process," Rondeaux says. "It also raises the possible threat that the incumbent's main rivals will question the results and perhaps encourage a violent response, leaving open a window for the Taliban to fully disrupt Afghanistan's progress." (Watch a video on the Afghanistan election...