Report from the 51st state

CNN's Kyra Phillips is in Iraq, apparently as part of a Happy-Fifth-Birthday-Iraq-War! thing CNN has going on. Anyway, she interviews some soldiers about the US election. No, not American soldiers, Iraqi soldiers. Let's listen in:

PHILLIPS (on camera): Is there a certain candidate in the U.S. that you're following?

AHMED MANSOUR, 6th DIVISION, ENGINEER (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): The truth is, I pay attention to the Democratic Party, even more, Hillary Clinton.

PHILLIPS: Why?

MANSOUR: Because I like her personality. Because she's new. In America, you need something new, a new female president. We saw and lived under the Republican Party, under Bush. We would like to see what the Democrats have to offer.

...

ALAA AHMED, INFANTRY, E.O.D. (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Elections in the USA are directly connected to the future of Iraq and the pulling of U.S. forces from Iraq. Democracy in Iraq is new. We don't know much about it. We need practice. Our stability is not easy to fix.

PHILLIPS: Do you have a favorite candidate?

AHMED: Obama.

PHILLIPS: Obama.

AHMED: He's practical and he loves to serve his country.

Oh, and:

PHILLIPS: Well, Tom, just to be perfectly clear here, I did ask them, are you following any of the Republican candidates? Do you want to talk about John McCain?

Within that whole group, not one wanted a Republican in the U.S. presidential seat. They were all for a Democrat. They were all for that type of change, because, they said, looking we're living a Republican war. I thought it was interesting.

There you have it. The people speak.