Which means that the “conclusions ” reached are specious. The biggie: 31% to 33% in a 3.1% margin of error is meaningless. That OUGHT to be noticed as such by any educated reader.

And certainly by an educated REPORTER.

I’m wondering more and more, though, whether anything can succeed until after the next elections. With every new develpment in Iraq, there is a new reason for ’staying the course’ claimed by the President. The reasons change, but the message is always the same: we have to stay in full force.

In thinking about the Crocker and Petraeus testimonies (they’ve given a number of TV interviews), I realize what a good sales job they did. While being charmingly modest about predicting successes, they’ve had no qualms about predciting exactly what terrible things would happen if the President doesn’t get his way about troop levels. It’s kind of odd, how sure they are about reading the tea leaves in one direction, while being so careful about reading them in another. (I’m not saying they’re dishonest; they’re just persoally invested in the success of their
jobs).

I pity the next president, who will inherit this mess.
I pity us, who will have to liive with years more of the same.

Jim Lehrer posted 10 more photos of the dead.

As a Democrat opposed to this war, I don’t fret this at all. There was never going to be a veto-proof majority to cut off the war, even if Petraeus showed up and said the security situation went completely backward since February. Too many Republicans will vote the way Bush tells them to.

That’s why I’ve never bought into the militant end-the-war campaign of Daily Kos. Sure, it’d be great to disengage the US from the Iraq catastrophe right away; we shouldn’t let more Americans die for a hopeless cause just so politicians can kick the can down the road and save face. But the way to do that is to change the narrative in Washington. And to do that, Democrats need to embrace the more moderate bills like the one floated by Lamar Alexander and Ken Salazar that imposes the Iraq Survey Group findings. Sure, it won’t end the war right away. And yes, it will give some political cover to Republicans who only recently discovered that America hates this war. But it will also help cement the movement in both political parties away from long-term commitment to an open-ended war. Once you go down that road you cannot turn back.

As far as partisan battling goes, this has had to be a frustrating three days for the anti-Bush group.

You had a lame duck President, hanging on the ropes in the 13th round and I suspect all the left/Dems salivated that this week would be the knock out blow. Now, not only is it clear there was no knockout blow delivered, but all things considered, it’s starting to look like Bush is actually getting the better of it.

From purely a political spectator’s standpoint, quite amazing.