I saw it too and thought Stewart's comments were refreshing. Apparently the joyous scenes from the video of the Iraqi elections overcame his PC bias against GWB. There were still plenty of snarky jabs at the administration, but at least they were funny and not just mean-spirited like those leading up to the Presidential election.

So the logical next step for a smart guy like Stewart would be to ask how the MSM missed this story. Was it misreported by the MSM or was it unknowable?

I won't hold my breath but it's a least a start, especially given his huge audience among young adults.

What story did the MSM miss? I saw ubiquitous reporting on the Iraqi elections.

My apology for not making clear that I was referring to pre-election reporting.

Blogs, including MilBlogs such as Silver Star recipient Red Six's Armor Geddon had been reporting well in advance about the enthusiasm for the election among the Iraqi populace.

The soldiers of 2-63 AR BN are out there hardening the election sites and working around the clock to provide security for the Iraqis. I'm pretty excited about being out there for something historical. Not all my soldiers can be out there but I have guys begging to be taken out in sector. Seeing how bad these locals want the elections to happen has been pretty inspiring for us. I will be posting photos of the guys laying wire and dropping barriers when I have more time, probably after elections are over.

Yet the turnout and celebratory atmosphere came as a surprise to the MSM who supposedly have reporters in Iraq -- reporters who were in a position to report accurately the mood of the Iraqi voters. If they reported it, I missed it.

perhaps it's me and Capitano is right about Stewart. my read on Stewart is that he's not happy about the elections, and refuses to see anything as positive about the war, its outcome, or President Bush - including Zakaria's assertion about the benefit for other non-democratic countries in the region who will desire democracy as they watch Iraq's success - regardless of the facts.

his jaded dissatisfaction and negative take on these topics, and their frequent coverage on his show, leave me more often annoyed than amused. and that's a shame because Stewart is a very smart, funny guy.

and yes, Stewart's comment about imploding is refreshing. he's willing to agree that the outcome of elections in Iraq are positive, and to consider that his opposition should be reconsidered, even if it's painful. that is more than refreshing; it's evidence of his considerable intelligence.

Zakaria may indeed be brilliant (though I've seen no compelling evidence of that), but he has certainly missed one key concept that any successful small business owner knows all too well - there is a severe limit to our capability to plan a strategy for the future in the face of opposition or competition.

It's easy to look at where we are and say, in hindsight, all the things we should have done better. But to use that hindsight and say "the whole thing was horribly planned" misses the point. One plans for the future based on the information at hand. Then one adjusts the strategy based on how the original plan unfolds, and how the opposition or competition responds to it.

That capability to adjust is at least as important, maybe more so, than the ability to generate the original plan. And Bush and Co and clearly shown the ability to adjust. They pulled out the first Iraq adminstrator in only a month or two, realizing that he was not a fit. The armed forces there have adapted to the insurgency in myraid ways.

The insurgency itself has adapted, and has come up with innovations that no planner should have been expected to see in advance. That's simply in the nature of any conflict or competitive situation.

The standards by which one should judge operations like Iraq is not what we can look back and see that we should have done better (that's what we do for the next conflict), but instead we look at the end results and the costs to get them. So far, the results look impressive, especially in the face of "experts" who constantly said we could never even get this far. And the costs are astonishingly low when we compare to other similar scale conflicts in history.

If we buy into this idea that hindsight on any ambitious venture is the standard for success, then that would strongly discourage anyone from ever undertaking such ventures, since they would always be judged inadequate.