A reader at Eugene Volokh’s site asks a good question. For all those people who think that Saddam is rational and cunning, and can be dealt with on that basis, explain the stupidity of the 100% vote.

As Eugene points out, an 85-15 vote (or one similar to Bush’s current approval ratings) would look more realistic (though still hard to credit) and would have given him a propaganda advantage, because the the idiotarians in the press would have surely treated it as credible. What he actually did was meaningless from the standpoint of someone in the West, and is indeed a symptom of megalomania.