IRAQ’S CONSTITUTIONAL DELIBERATIONS will continue for another week. Is this good news or bad? That, not to put too fine a point on it, depends.

Publius thinks it’s good news. Noting that polls show the Iraqi people as considerably more progressive than the leadership that’s negotiating over the constitution, he thinks this will give time for that to be felt. I hope he’s right.

It’s probably neither good news or bad, but just part of the ongoing haggling, which as I’ve mentioned before is likely to be self-limiting once the Sunnis realize they’ve gotten as much as they can. But the big question, as Publius suggests, is what the Iraqi people want, and what they’re willing to demand. As with the American Constitution in 1789, it’s a republic — if they can keep it. And as with Americans, it’s ultimately up to them to do so.

Omar at Iraq the Model has been posting a lot on this topic, as you might expect. And Ian Schwartz has video of Condi Rice’s press conference. I’m still disappointed, though, that the oil trust idea didn’t get more attention.

UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis thinks the mainstream press is stuck in an Eeyore narrative: “On the Iraqi constitution, a week’s delay is seen as a defeat. But, of course, we should compare that with our own heritage: 16 months to negotiate articles of confederation that were a disaster; 13 years from the Declaration of Independence before we ended up with a constitution and a government.”