Worries about Iraqi Democracy

I favor withdrawal from Iraq but I'm a bit unclear on what people mean when they say we should pare down our objectives by not talking about democracy.

Adam Blickstein notes that Obama and Gen. Odierno are both using roughly the same language in reference to Iraq:

This strategy is grounded in a clear and achievable goal shared by the Iraqi people and the American people: an Iraq that is sovereign, stable, and self-reliant.

Blickstein goes on to say:

Ilan noted the shift in tone and rhetoric between Obama's stated goals and those espoused by Bush, whose central pillar was "helping the people of Iraq establish a democracy in the heart of the Middle East." But it is striking that almost a month before Obama's speech that Odierno used nearly the same language as Obama when describing the desired end state in Iraq.

As recently as December 2008, Bush still clung on to the ideal of a democratic Iraq: "There is hope in the eyes of Iraqis' young. This is a future of what we've been fighting for -- a strong and capable democratic Iraq."  This starkly conrasted with what General Petraeus said in April 2008 while he still was commander of troops in Iraq: "We're not after the Holy Grail in Iraq, we're not after Jeffersonian democracy."

A sense of realism has blanketed the idealism of democracy promotion in Iraq in both the political and military circles. And clearly, it's refreshing to finally see both the military commanders and the Commander-in-Chief on the same page whe it comes to Iraq's future.

What exactly does this mean?  That Maliki is going to suspend elections and we're going to be okay with it?  As I said, I favor withdraw.  I'm not favoring the U.S. fighting to make sure the Iraqi government maintains electoral democracy though I do think using political pressure is appropraite.  If Maliki becomes a full-on strongman I think we should just get out faster.  But could those that are so happy about the dropping of the democracy language explain a bit more what they're talking about?  The Jeffersonian democracy line is fairly meaningless, only fools ever thought that a successful democracy in Iraq would look like ours.  Are we talking democracy with weak liberalism or not even the minimum standards of electoral democracy?