The 2004 Presidential elections in the US had a 60.7% turnout rate. The Iraqi elections has had an estimated 72% turnout rate.

This is what the World Socialist website had to say:

Initial reports on voter turnout were driven by the political imperative to put the best possible face on the election and influence public opinion in the United States, which is increasingly turning against the war. The turnout figure began at 90 percent plus—numbers reported, naturally enough, on Fox News. Then an Iraqi election official put the figure at 72 percent nationwide. This was subsequently lowered to 60 percent nationwide, then to 60 percent “in some areas.”

Can you imagine? Only 60% voter turnout in the first election in a country which has had an oppressive dictatorial regime for generations? What a miserable failure.

Oh, but it’s not just the World Socialist website, see what Peter Jennings had to say.

ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings insisted that for Iraq’s Sunni population, the vote was still “illegitimate.”

“I don’t want to seem unnecessarily skeptical,” Jennings told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on ABC’s “This Week.” “But in fact the Iraqis seemed to turn out in some places and not turn out in others.”

Though ecstatic Iraqi elections officials said Sunday that turnout nationwide was 72 percent - and may top 90 percent in Shiite areas - Jennings wasn’t satisfied.

“Just today one of the leading Sunni secular leaders said he was worried about the degree of the turnout,” he told Dr. Rice. “And it is similarly true that many Sunnis are not turning out because they think this is an illegitimate election in the presence of a U.S. occupation.”

And regarding the comparison of turnout rates, a commenter on this post points something of further interest out.

The 70% figure compared to US voter turnout understates the the true Iraqi commitment to Democracy. 70% of eligible Iraqi voters will vote. 61% of registered voters in the US voted and this is much more like 50% of eligible US voters as many don’t even register.

UPDATE: Poliblogger has the turnout at 57%. Some comments from Roger Simon:

let’s remind ourselves that turnout in recent US Presidential elections is barely over 50% of eligible voters and that in the nascent days of our democracy, 1824, it was 26.9%.

Cigars in the Sand writes in from Iraq:

I’ve been reading the coverage, and watching the pundits. This appears to be the new line of dissent:

“Yes, Iraqis voted today in massive numbers. But voting isn’t democracy.”

I agree. But that’s also like saying that the best college basketball team didn’t win the NCAA championship. It may be true, but they ARE wearing the rings. Wanna see my purple finger?

And there’s a funny picture in the “Sorry Everybody” theme from Wizbang.

UPDATE 2: Wizbang also has some commentary on the Daily Kos‘ link to the Vietnam voter turnout story, concluding with:

If history is really repeating itself as the loony left would have you believe, does that mean John Kerry will soon be offering to surrender to Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi at secret meetings in France?