Unsurprisingly, the limited anecdotal evidence marshalled by the Washington Post (the Post talked to a "Saudi political analyst," who I assume must have a day job) suggests the election is being interpreted by overseas observers solely as a referendum on Iraq. With distance, they may be seeing more clearly than we do. If I were Colin Powell, I'd call up the French foreign minister today and politely point out that President Bush will be huddling with legislators to hammer out the agenda for the next 4 or 5 days, and that once he's done with that, the train will be leaving the station for Baghdad, with or without France and the UN Security Council.