Pakistan is not America

Benazir Bhutto's party has chosen a new leader. Leaders, actually.

Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, and son, Bilawal Bhutto, will pick up where she left off. That's what the Pakistan People's Party, Bhutto's party, said today.

Bilawal, 19, was reading History at Oxford when his mother was killed, and has no political experience. But, his mother was about that age when she got active in Pakistani politics.

Bilawal said that he'd avenge his mother's assassination. He may not have a bloodbath in mind, though. He said: "My mother always said that democracy is the best revenge."

A candidate's spouse picking up where the wife or husband left off is nothing new in American politics. Having a 19-year-old lined up to take national leadership hasn't happened yet in America. And it's not likely to. For starters, there are age limits on that sort of thing.

This should be a wake-up call for Americans who judge what's going on in Pakistan, and the actions of Pakistani leaders, by American standards.

Pakistan is a fine country, but it isn't America. People have a different way of getting things done there.

Posts about Benazir Bhutto.