al-jaafari is in, chalabi is not. chalabi would have been a disaster. i know less about al-jaafari as a person. i'm guessing that will change fairly soon. (my next arabic reading assignment will probably be his biography, if my tutor sticks to his usual pattern).
the real tests will be how he handles (1) the iraqi people's demand to have u.s. forces leave iraq, and (2) what he does during the upcoming constitutional convention on big issues like: the role of islam as a source of the law, how accountable he allows the prime minister position to be to the iraqi people, and whether he puts any mechanisms into place which are designed to help him cling to power.
