It's purely an opinion piece, an endorsement. It summarizes the existing arguments for and against and comes to a logical conclusion. I, for one, didn't know that they conducted their own global presidential poll - http://www.economist.com/vote2008/ I also wasn't aware so many conservatives had jumped ship, including 27 newspapers (last week's 'Lexington'): http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displays...

I read The Economist because I don't always have time to read entire articles about every little development on every issue. How many New York Times articles would you have had to read to gain as much information as from this one Economist piece?

Again, what would you have us read instead?