Afghan Presidency's Crowded Field

Unlike President Bush, a staunch supporter of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Barack Obama has refused to support any candidate in the race for Afghanistan’s top job. To date, at least 41 challengers have entered the race to govern the country whose borders continue to shrink due to an advancing insurgency. In a recent poll, only 30 percent of Afghanis said their country is going in the right direction. One leading candidate is attracting support by promising to remove foreign military presence from the country. According to the Boston Globe, Karzai still has the upper hand in Afghanistan thanks to the incumbent’s political machine and “genius for neutralizing rivals by giving them plum political posts.” Although, experts say he still might lose the election as support among fellow ethnic Pashtuns seems to be faltering.