A Savvy Horse Trader; Critics say America's ambassador to Kabul is too cozy with Karzai, but he may have saved the election.

Byline: Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai (With Eve Conant in Washington)

Surrounded by a bevy of bodyguards, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad quickly strode out of the house of Afghan presidential candidate Yunus Qanooni and through a gaggle of journalists waiting outside. "The real show is inside," said the impeccably dressed, Afghan-born envoy as he rushed to his armored car last week, after the country's first post-Taliban presidential election. He was being modest. These days, Khalilzad's highly persuasive diplomacy is the real show in Afghanistan.

Dressed in a silver gown and striped cape, Qanooni told the press that he was dropping his objection to the results of the country's Oct. 9 election in favor of an investigation by a panel of foreign experts into alleged electoral fraud--a Khalilzad suggestion. By the weekend, preliminary results showed incumbent Hamid Karzai with a lead comfortable enough to suggest victory. If that proves true, he owes Khalilzad a big thank-you. Heated charges of poll-rigging from Qanooni, Uzbek warlord Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and the 13 other candidates running against Karzai had threatened to sabotage the election, in which at least 75 percent of Afghanistan's more than 10 million registered voters cast ballots. Khalilzad spent three days negotiating with the malcontents, and seems to have rescued the election. "When you have a wobbly political process and weak institutions, you need a troubleshooter like Khalilzad," says Vikram Parekh, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group in Kabul. "He may have saved the day."

Khalilzad, whom many Afghans have dubbed the "Viceroy," is arguably the most powerful man in Afghanistan. He speaks both major languages (Dari and Pashto), is steeped in Afghan customs, knows the difficult dynamics of tribal politics--and has at his disposal billions of dollars in U.S. economic aid as well as 20,000 U.S. troops. He is best of friends with Karzai; the two talk constantly via a secure cell-phone link.

Khalilzad's Washington connections are equally impressive. He is a Bush administration insider, close to the president and the conservative heavyweights at the Defense Department, including Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz. He was an early advocate of invading Iraq, an enterprise driven more by ideology than on-the-ground reality.

But in Afghanistan, Khalilzad favors old-fashioned horse trading over political theory. In his one year in Kabul, he's favored stability over badly needed but potentially destabilizing reforms. For example, the ...