Have they been gathering footage already?
Reported by Chrish - January 27, 2005
Unlike Shepard Smith , who is in Baghdad, Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute (and former Coalition Provisional Authority Political Advisor), appearing on The Big Story today 1/26/05, expects "very much" to see Iraqis lined up to vote, urged on by the American president. So confident are they of this footage that viewers are invited to tune in Sunday at 5PM for The Big Story with John Gibson to see for themselves.
What Rubin is worried about is that there will likely not be a winner declared for two weeks, and that may cause a "slightly dangerous vacuum." People might think there's cheating, and if they realize they lost they would have reason to disparage the legitimacy of the election.
When Rubin began talking about his own experience on his latest trip to Iraq, 2 weeks ago, where he saw "Iraqis crossing ethnic and sectarian lines, in smoky backrooms at 11 at night, midnight, one in the morning, striking deals and talking about post-election policy and so forth", time was up and we didn't get to hear any more about how post-election is being decided now.
Comment: While the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach is not nearly as bad as it was for our own elections last November, there's a definite feeling of unease about Iraq's. All we can do is wait and see and hope it's not a bloodbath.
