Iraqis Have New Constitution; AP Not Happy

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The Iraqis have approved their new constitution, but the AP is not real happy about it. Look how quickly they go from good news to bad news in this report:

Draft Constitution Adopted by Iraq Voters

Iraq's constitution was adopted by a majority in a fair vote during the country's Oct. 15 referendum, as Sunni Arab opponents failed to muster enough support to defeat it, election officials said Tuesday. A prominent Sunni politician called the balloting "a farce."

The U.S. military also announced the deaths of two Marines in fighting with insurgents last week in Baghdad, bringing the number of American service members killed in the war to 1,999.

It's almost as though they used the news of the vote as an excuse to rerun the combat death numbers. By the way, was the vote close? You might think so reading those opening paragraphs. Here's what you find way down near the bottom of the article:

The vote on the constitution was 78.59 percent in favor of ratification and 21.41 percent against, the commission said.

That's a blowout any way you want to look at it. Had the constitution been defeated by those numbers, you can be assured they would have led the report and the headline would have been something like "Iraqis Overwhelmingly Defeat Bush-Approved Constitution".