Foreign Elections in 2009

The world could be very different a year from now. Elections all across the world mean that a whole new group of leaders will be meeting with President Obama. Here's to the hope that they'll be reasonable people.

Elections in Israel and the Palestinian Authority signal that changing relations between Israel and Palestine could become real. I doubt, however, that we're going to see idiots stop throwing rocks at people with guns (I mean, you do have to be an idiot to think that in the bizarre real-world 'rocks, paper, guns' that rock beats gun). Unfortunately, Palestine has Fatah (Party) running against Hamas (Party), neither of which are exactly friendly, or disinclined to use violence (which I might point out has failed to accomplish anything in over 60 years except get Israel to beat a whole slew of nations in a war).

Iran has, in theory, an election but I doubt that'll be more than a confirmation of Ahmadinejad.

Mexico is having an election. It'll be a question as to whether PAN (party) keeps control or it slips back into PRI (party) hands. If, by some miracle, PRD (party) wins we might see some changes. It's unlikely that the changes will manage to stem the flow of illegal narcotics to the United States or the violence that goes alongside them. Further, it's unlikely the legitimate Mexican economy will wrest control of the country's income from the black market and, more than likely, the next President will be elected in a hotly contested election that could dissolve into violence.

Sudan's having elections but it's unlikely those will result in stopping the pirate raids on tankers.

Also, Germany is having an election, it's not known yet if Merkel will continue to lead the country or not. We'll probably learn more in the coming months.