With the announcement that a number of pro-Sunni parties were planning on boycotting the upcoming Iraqi election, http://www.juancole.com/2004/11/election-boycott-announced-forty-seven.html">the chattering classes declared democracy DOA in Iraq.
Six months later, of course, the boycott was a shambles, with Sunni clerics issuing a fatwa requiring participation in the democratic process.
PRE-DATED on 7/7/05