Why Iraq is a better country than the US

MANIFESTO

At yesterday's Senate hearing with General David Petraeus, Connecticut's own Holy Joe opined:

Hey, let's be honest about this. The Iraqi political leadership has achieved a lot more political reconciliation and progress since September than the American political leadership has. So we've got to give some credit for that.

Oh, that I were making this up.

As Matt Yglesias observed,

America has a heated political debate, but liberals and conservatives aren't shooting mortars at each other and we don't have pitched battles in the streets. To compare the situation in Iraq to the persistence of strong partisan disagreement in the United States is idiotic.

Of course it is, but he's our idiot, and that's why we love him.

Or, think of the "Homer's Enemy" episode of The Simpsons in this. Unfortunately, to complete the analogy, Connecticut's denizens turn out to be represented by Homer.

UPDATE — But at least US campaign officials don't hack their opponents' computer network servers.