IT'S OFFICIAL: Auto dealers have defeated General Motors. In the bankruptcy settlement that paved the way for tens of billions of dollars in federal aid, GM got the authority to trim its network of 6,000 dealers by about a third. Though necessary to GM's competitiveness, the move infuriated the dealers who were slated for closure. They went to Congress for protection and got it, in the form of a law that gave every dealer the right to take GM to arbitration. Some 1,160 dealers exercised that right, and on March 5 GM said that, rather than fight them all -- at enormous cost in time and money -- it will reinstate 661.

ELECTION DAY in Iraq last Sunday started out violently but ended well, with a turnout that exceeded that of last year's local elections -- not to mention most U.S. presidential votes. Since then, the counting has been slow and messy, with loud but so far unsubstantiated charges of fraud. The preliminary results show a close race between the mainly Shiite coalition of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a second Shiite alliance and a nationalist and secular ticket that received heavy support in Sunni areas.

GETTING NEW charter school legislation through the Virginia General Assembly was a top priority of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R). He succeeded -- but we have to wonder if the compromises he made to win legislative approval undermine his worthy goals. It remains to be seen if the bill he proclaimed as a victory will lead to more charters being established in the state.

PRESIDENT OBAMA took office hoping that constructive diplomacy could yield progress on some of the thorniest foreign-policy challenges facing the United States. Among these was Burma, a Southeast Asian nation of 50 million people that has been misruled into poverty, decline and perpetual warfare by a benighted military dictatorship. Mr. Obama did not abandon economic sanctions against the regime, but he did hold out the prospect of warmer relations if Burma's regime would show some sign of easing up on its people.