MWind - Within my lifetime? I suppose Ike, based on what I've read (my focus during the Eisenhower years was how I was going to get my next stick of bubblegum). Approaching adulthood, I much admired Lyndon Johnson for his gutsy civil rights and other social policies. Too bad he allowed the military/industrial complex to devour his presidency.

While on the subject, the best Aussie PM in my mind was that dude that got (presumably) glomed on by a shark. Talk about your innovative ways of avoiding the wrath of the electorate!

MonsoonWind

With the exception of Carter...none of them merit accolades or the meanest of approvals. Some deserve to be shot.

The Miami Herald
Allawi's surprising strength in election shows divided Iraq
www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/25/1547547/a...ing-strength-in.html

BAGHDAD -- Political enemies of the secular Iraqi candidate Ayad Allawi purged his electoral ticket of anyone they considered to be linked to the former regime's Baath Party.

On election eve, they disqualified many of the replacement candidates, too. Then, they took to the airwaves and Internet to label Allawi a CIA tool, a Saddam Hussein sympathizer and a sellout to his fellow Shiite Muslims for allying with prominent Sunnis. Finally, they questioned whether his mother's Lebanese citizenship barred him from seeking the prime minister post, a strategy akin to the "birther" movement against President Barack Obama.

Despite all the political maneuvering against him, Allawi has emerged as the main challenger to incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose State of Law coalition is tied in a race that's too close to call with Allawi's Iraqiya alliance....

Aljazeera
english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/20...032618832513534.html

Iraqiya won 91 seats in the 325-member Council of Representatives, while al-Maliki's State of Law Alliance won 89 seats, the independent electoral commission said on Friday.

The Iraqi National Alliance, a coalition of mostly Shia religious groups, came third with 70 seats. Kurdistania, comprised of the autonomous Kurdish region's two long-dominant blocs - the Kurdish Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, won 43 seats...

...Abdel Bari Atwan, the editor of al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, told Al Jazeera that the election had shown changes in the country's political makeup: "The Sunnis voted for Allawi who is a Shia. They want a real Iraqi identity. They want to put an end to the Iranian influence which is spreading in the country.

"Also they want a secular government, they are fed up of this sectarianism. They want to have an Iraq they aspire to, to have stability, democracy, human rights, equality. And they don’t want those religious people at the top of their authority..."

Though apparently many were not of voting age.

www.channelnewsasia.com./stories/afp_world/view/1046174/1/.html

Washington Post
In Iraq's election, a defeat for Iran
voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2...on_a_defeat_for.html

Hold the fireworks for Ayad Allawi, Iraq’s former prime minister, who won his country’s election by the proverbial razor-thin margin of just two seats. It’s too early to say how --or even, if -- Allawi will be able to form the secular government of reconciliation he has promised.

But we can say one thing with certainty: The election was a stunning defeat for Iran and its spymaster, Qassem Soleimani, who commands the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. Soleimiani had spent millions trying to stop an Allawi victory. He failed. If nothing else, that shows the resiliency of Iraqi nationalism, and anti-Iranian feeling, which the Shiite religious parties who have been governing Iraq these past five years failed to crush....

Haaretz
Netanyahu endangering Israel's security
www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1159608.html

If there's a photo the White House should issue after Benjamin Netanyahu's visit, it's a group portrait of the prime minister, his Iraqi counterpart and the president of Afghanistan embracing Barack Obama together.

They are all heads of governments attached to the U.S.'s umbilical cord. They all experience insecurity in the region, and the world is concerned about each of the three's security. Washington manages domestic policy for each of them, since each poses a danger to American foreign policy. In Iraq, Washington is involved in disagreements among Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds. In Afghanistan, Washington dictates conditions to the president to help advance its war against Al-Qaida. And when it comes to Israel, the United States showed clearly last week that it will not allow domestic Israeli politics to interfere with American foreign policy.

The group photo is a fitting picture of how Israel's situation has deteriorated during Netanyahu's short term in office. We're not talking about yet another clumsy Israeli foreign minister whom no one wants to meet, or irksome building permits. Netanyahu poses a threat to Israeli security because he tips the balance of U.S.-Israeli relations, which are essential for our survival. And not only these relations. If Washington gives Israel the cold shoulder, it will be showing the way for other important countries, from Britain to Egypt and Brazil to Turkey, to do the same. Israel is no longer an exotic citron, but has been exposed as just another lemon.....

So this writer (no doubt much admired by the 'ster) believes that Iraq and Afghanistan "each poses a danger to American foreign policy." Kind of got it ass-backwards, there, but typical. But then the writer includes Israel among those posing a threat to US foreign policy!

I suppose that would be true if the US feels threatened by Israelis beating off the barbarians that would destroy Israel. But, somehow, I don't perceive that the formulators of American foreign policy feel threatened by the IDF.

Asharq Al-Awsat Talks to Iyad Allawi
aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=20383

...Q) Has there been any talk or discussions with the State of Law coalition headed by Nouri al Maliki?

A) We do not have any ties to the State of Law coalition and we do not know their approaches. Our conversations are limited to the Kurdistan Alliance, the Sadrists and the Supreme Islamic Council and other Iraqi national political bodies and individuals. We want to form an Iraqi national government away from any kind of sectarian and political quotas in order to implement a program to build an institutional state, a state that respects the judiciary and the law and achieves services for the Iraqis and provides [good] economic conditions, a state that relies on Iraqi capabilities and works on returning migrants to their homes and their nation. We hope that the Iraqi electorate voted for this program and God willing the Iraqi citizen will raise his head [with pride].

The politicking has begun to form a national, secular government and Allawi has only a few months to do it. Iraqi nationalist preference for a secular over a sectarian state was a blow to Iranian interests in Iraq, but should Allawi succeed in building a governing coalition the blow will be irreversible.

RFE/RL
Kurdish Alliance Gives Criteria For Forming A Coalition
www.rferl.org/content/Kurdish_Alliance_G...alition/1995216.html

BAGHDAD -- A senior Iraqi Kurdish official says that upholding pluralism, democracy, and the constitution must be the main criteria for any postelection government coalition that wants to have the Kurdistan Alliance as a partner, RFE/RL's Radio Free Iraq (RFI) reports...

...In the recent vote, the Kurdistan Alliance won 43 seats in the 325-seat parliament. In the outgoing Iraqi parliament, Kurds held 58 seats, including 50 held by the Kurdistan Alliance. The other eight seats are held by smaller Kurdish factions.