Success

It seems that everyone in Afghanistan went to the polls on Saturday, except the Taliban. The biggest problem was not blood on the streets, but ink off the thumbs. Every election involving millions of voters has fraud, but there's fraud and then there's massive fraud that changes the outcome. Exit polling unsurprisingly suggests Karzai won in a landslide.

Even better, Karzai's strongest opponent in the race, Qanooni, has backed off from boycotting the results to supporting the UN inquiry into fraud allegations. I don't think Qanooni had much choice, given the public's overwhemling happiness about their first election. Democracy is a fragile thing, but it is also a strongly coveted thing.