Seems I am mentally focused on Pakistan today (well, all we have in America is some lame rumors of a pol having sex with someone – so Bill Clintoonish). Here is an interesting run down on the Pakistan election results and how moderates may be able to out maneuver the more radicalized leaders of the opposition parties who, I assume, will keep squabbling, blustering and be general distracted:

The election results, as expected, produced enough votes for the two largest parties — the late Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party and Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PMLN) — to form a coalition. Only one small problem: Neither one was willing to work with President Pervez Musharraf, who got himself re-elected by the outgoing National Assembly, which had been rigged originally in his favor. Musharraf said he planned to serve out his term until 2012.

Democratic stability took a turn for the worse as Asif Zardari, Bhutto’s widower, and Sharif conferred on how they could bring about the impeachment of Musharraf without a parliamentary majority. Sharif, who had been deposed by Musharraf in 1999 and exiled to Saudi Arabia for 10 years, now let it be known he favored A.Q. Khan, the notorious nuclear black marketer, as Musharraf’s successor.

…

Even more disconcerting for the Bush administration — and its successor — Sharif does not endorse the U.S. “war on terror.” He is committed to restoring the old judiciary fired by Musharraf for its interference in “Bush’s war on terror.” The dismissed chief justice kept pushing Musharraf to get information from Washington on missing prisoners who had been sent to Guantanamo and other secret detention locations.

Sharif sounds like a true liberal leftist who sees no problems with the terrorists, just America fighting back after 9-11. But it is not all doom and gloom:

Now hovering in the background as a potential prime minister in waiting is former President Farooq Leghari, the man who fired Benazir Bhutto during her second stint as prime minister. One of the plans now bruited is for Leghari to succeed Chaudry Shujaat Hussain, president of the pro-Musharraf PML (Q). Leghari, in turn, with U.S. and Musharraf’s support, would attract second-tier leaders who would split from PPP and PML(N) to create a broad coalition committed to (1) the war on terror and (2) economic progress with continued U.S. aid.

The best election news was the defeat of the MMA coalition of six politico-religious extremist parties that now must abandon the regional governments they control in Baluchistan and the Northwest Frontier province. This clean sweep also makes U.S. clandestine operations in FATA a lot easier for the United States.

Interesting perspective. Anyone who thinks the news media has grasp on how things will play out anywhere in the world is truly naive. As I posted earlier here and here and don’t think all the noise coming form Pakistan comports with the clear message of the voters. Just like the Dems in the US had no mandate to impeach Bush or surrender Iraq to al-Qaeda, the newly elected leaders in Pakistan were not sent to Islamabad to carry out political vendettas on old enemies – they were sent to bring peace and remove the terrorists. If they fail they will be punished by the voters.