That the near-term hope for a democratic Pakistan rests with “an Oxford undergraduate with no political experience” is decidedly not inspiring. Nor, frankly, is the fact that “real power will lie with Bhutto’s widower Asif Ali Zardari, a controversial figure who has been mired in corruption allegations” any comfort.

What it reveals is that the emperor had no clothes. Whatever was a longshot before Bhutto's assassination looks even longer now.