vote for the world's worst dictators

I've been doing my best to spread nifty reddit polls throughout Condé Nast and I keep getting surprised with what folks come up with. Most recently, Parade has been dabbling with our polling tool. I certainly never would have imagined it'd be used to vote for the worst dictator, but sure enough, there's Kim Jong-Il holding a solid #1 spot with an up-arrow beside him.

Mugabe certainly made headlines in 07 for the appalling conditions in Zimbabwe as the country's economic collapsed. He holds the current number 2 spot.

I feel like King Abdullah has gotten a bit robbed, he deserves bonus points for combining dictatorship with such a close friendship with the U.S.A.

Perhaps too busy hunting down bin Laden to help with campaigning, Musharaff now has some "democratic obstacles" to deal with in Pakistan now that his party got flogged in this recent election. Maybe '08 will be a bad year for military-backed rulers? Let's hope Bhutto's death wasn't in vain.

(Kudos to Parade defending the decision to run the interview after her death -- exposing a number of new people to her life and legacy, I'm sure.)