Winning in Iraq, in Pakistan, and beyond

• Islam at the Ballot Box - WSJ

Pakistan’s election has been portrayed by the Western media as a defeat for President Pervez Musharraf. The real losers were the Islamist parties…the parties linked, or at least sympathetic, to the Taliban and al Qaeda saw their share of the votes slashed to about 3% from almost 11% in the last general election a few years ago. The largest coalition of the Islamist parties, the United Assembly for Action (MMA), lost control of the Northwest Frontier Province — the only one of Pakistan’s four provinces it governed. The winner in the province is the avowedly secularist National Awami Party.

Despite vast sums of money spent…[the Islamists]…failed to achieve the “approaching victory” (fatah al-qarib) that Islamist candidates, both Shiite and Sunni, had boasted was coming. The Islamist defeat in Pakistani confirms a trend that’s been under way for years…Read on at WSJ

• Snatching Defeat Away From Victory - Krauthammer at Townhall.com

…there is simply no denying the remarkable improvements in Iraq since the surge began a year ago. Unless you’re a Democrat. As Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., put it, “Democrats have remained emotionally invested in a narrative of defeat and retreat in Iraq.” Their Senate leader, Harry Reid, declares the war already lost. Their presidential candidates (eight of them at the time) unanimously oppose the surge. Then the evidence begins trickling in… Read on at Townhall

Also, America’s most sinful cities according to Forbes. (Complete with interactive map.)

And Hugh Hewitt describes Obama v. McCain as “The Least Unpredictable Campaign Ever?”

“Here’s the intellectual exercise conservatives have to undertake…” - Hewitt

On more: John Derbyshire says Al Gore is inevitable in The Man on the White Stallion at National Review