Iraqis are ready for Sunday; here’s Michael Rubin:

On the streets of Baghdad, the campaign is also in full swing. Iraqis ponder voting by the number. There are more than 250 election slates, representing approximately 7,000 candidates. A lottery assigned each slate a ballot position between 101 and 365. Driving to Kadhimiya, a largely Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, I see walls covered with posters for Slate 169, the Iraqi National Alliance. The posters alternately show a burning candle or the images of Sistani and the late Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq Sadr superimposed over the number 169. Streets along Baghdad’s now-decrepit Abu Nawas corniche are emblazoned with posters advertising the Constitutional Monarchy Movement’s leader, Sharif Ali bin Hussein, a Sunni businessman who has managed to attract significant tribal support. In a sign of tolerance and political maturity, competing campaigns do not obstruct one another’s posters.
To Iraqis, the elections are no longer theoretical. With voting less than a week away, there is electricity in the air. Pundits and politicians can discuss whether the elections should go forward, but for most Iraqis, such debates are moot. Democracy may be a process, but it is one in which Iraqis are ready to take the first step.