Well, he's a better choice than Jimmy Carter.

Though I don't always agree with everything he says, Tom Friedman has a decent piece up in the NYT today, highlighting the role that Ayatollah al-Sistani has played in helping rebuild and reshape Iraq. It's amazing how in one country, clerics and an Ayatollah are so blindingly brutal and power-mad that they plunge it into 25 years of darkness, and in the neighboring country the Ayatollah champions democracy and (somewhat) secular rule. Friedman is certainly correct in outlining the great contributions that Al-Sistani has made to the Iraq reconstruction progress, and it is great to have the #1 religious leader in the country endorsing a legal, constitutional process rather than religious fanaticism. Sure, he's no Thomas Jefferson (he wants Islam to be one, but not the only, source of inspiration for Iraq's new government), but for the Arab world he's pretty damn good, and we should be thankful.