Death-defying democracy

With a helicopter droning above the oppo factory (which sits some four blocks from the U.S. Capitol building), the president presented the parents of a fallen soldier, both resplendent in the purplish color reminiscent of the indellible ink used to mark the fingers of Iraqis who voted last weekend. When the mother leaned forward to embrace the Iraqi woman--whose father was martyred by Saddam Hussein--in the First Lady's box, the moment was truly moving. And Bush himself seemed to mist up.

Your blogstress did not support the invasion of Iraq, and thinks quite a mess has been made of things there. Nonetheless, she is gratified by the willingness of the Iraqi people to defy death to vote. In America, one must defy the death of the spirit to vote--and depending where one lives, perhaps an obstruction or two--and too few do.