10° 46' North; 106° 43' East
As the pom-pom waving and the cheerleading starts to recede, folks of sober second thought like Greg Mitchell from Editor and Publisher are starting to wonder what it all means for the Excited States (because, of course, it is always about them):
"What does "high turnout" mean? Is it a percentage of all eligible voters or just those who registered? Do the vast disparities suggest a coming civil war? Or did the insurgency suffer a death blow in failing to severely disrupt the process? And what are the results of the voting likely to show: a broadly representative government or one that may take Iraq in a direction troublesome for the United States?"
But regardless who does the counting and regardless the percentages ultimately generated, you've got to wonder if anything that emerges from that 'secret counting place' can possibly beat this:
"United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in (...#1) presidential election despite a (....#2) terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.
According to reports from (....#3), 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday....."
That report was from the New York Times in Sept of 1967 and the answers to the fill in the blanks are:
#1 - South Vietnam
#2 - Vietcong
#3 - Saigon
'Nuff said.
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