Exit Polls Show Ukraine Challenger Ahead

From AP.

True enough, the experience of our own elections shows that exit polls are often not worth the breath wasted to take them. A lot depends on who's taking them and who the takers want to see win, or if they even have a horse in this particular race. But if Viktor Yushchenko is set to body-slam Yanukovych to the mat, it is all of a piece with the reports we've seen from the Ukraine in advance of the election, of the overwhelming sentiment in favor of Yushchenko.

Niccolo Macchiavelli is often cited as having said that if you're going to kill the king, make sure of him, or you're dead. I'm not sure that Macchiavelli ever said that (at least, no such saying of his comes up early in a Google search), but I'd say that a similar maxim applies to those who try to poison their political opponents: make sure of them, or they'll beat you soundly in the next election simply because they have the sympathy of the electorate.

Yanukovych is already making sore-loser noises, threatening to go to court to contest these latest results. Will he have a prayer of winning? Only time will tell.