Bhutto coverage emblematic of foreign policy coverage issues

Basically just a degree away from my explanation of why Bhutto has attracted such a media crush -- shorter version: she was Westernized, female, and attractive -- is this darkly funny parody piece by Tim Noah. Since apparently every pundit east of the Mississippi knew her from Harvard, Oxford, or a cocktail party, we've been subjected to a never-ending barrage of Bhutto nostalgia pieces, and this is (farcically) an addition to the genre.

In all seriousness, though, it really does point to a serious problem in foreign policy coverage and thinking. From the American perspective, generally speaking, analysis of foreign leaders too often goes something like this: Speaks English? Sophisticated. Speaks language of country of origin? Backwater. Went to an Ivy League school? Moderate. Educated anywhere in the Eastern Hemisphere? Extremist. Appreciates single malt? A partner for peace. Eschews the party circuit? Untrustworthy.

And through these heuristics, you get things like people predicting electoral victories of, for example, Iraq's Allawi and Chalabi the day before Sadr and Hakim sweep the polls. It's very frustrating.