"They look like Rocky"

Johnny Dollar's Place has a transcript of Geraldo Rivera's on-location coverage of the Iraqi elections:

In this town, in this community, with 15,000 registered voters, we have just returned from the polling place. It is absolutely packed. Roll the video. There are men, women, families coming. They are casting their ballot for the first time.

It was so inspiring. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my entire life. It really is like the Berlin Wall going down in 1989. It really is like the beginning, like the dawn of the civil rights era, when black people could vote for the first time. It is the most amazing sight.

Only a hard-bitten cynic, only a person with absolutely no upside to their feeling of optimism, could look askance at what is happening, truly happening today. People are applauding themselves, they look like Rocky coming out of the polling place.

There are women voting for the first time, and it's just the most incredible thing. It's so heartwarming to see it.

I guess no one told those women they're just a bunch of big losers.

FOLLOW-UP:
From Daily Inklings, some more women who never read the International Herald Tribune article calling them the election's biggest losers:

Women queue from early morning hours in front of the polling station in downtown Erbil, Sunday, Jan. 30. 2005. Kurds in scores attended election in hope to gain significant voice in the interim Iraqi Parliament. (AP Photo/Sasa Kralj)

And from Little Green Footballs, here's an expatriate loser, voting by absentee ballot in California:

Iraqi immigrant Marwa Sadik from Seattle celebrates before casting her vote in Iraq’s election at the former El Toro Marine Base in Irvine, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2005. The Independent Iraqi Electoral Commission is allowing Iraqi immigrants living in 14 countries to vote by absentee ballot. Overseas voting continues through Sunday, which is Election Day in Iraq itself. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

I have my own list of who'll be the real losers in Iraq's elections. The insurgents -- who have now openly declared war on the people they would rule -- are on it. The defeatist politicians and media pundits that have tried to portray the elections as a dangerous charade are on it, too. The women above are not.