MoveOn, Clinton, MoveOn

Losing teams always make mistakes, but so do winning teams. The key is what mistake was the gamebreaker. Many have pointed to Clinton's 2002 vote to invade Iraq, but Kerry got the nomination (even though it handicapped him in the fall) just 2 years later. Voters are more forgiving since many of them initially supported the war. You can write that off as "Bush screwed it up."

What did Clinton in was her vote in fall 2007 for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment to authorize Bush to invade Iran. It completely undercut her argument that "Bush tricked her" in 2002. Fool me once, well, you can't fool me again, as Bush would say.

Her vote in 2007 was based on the same political calculation as in 2002: don't look weak on defense. She completely ignored the Democratic base who are angry with the Democrats for not doing enough to end the Iraqi war, but she figured they would have no choice but to vote for her.

In April, she criticized MoveOn for financing Obama, but it was her Iran vote that decided them for Obama. Once she betrayed their core issue: ending the war in Iraq, she lost them forever. They found a messenger in Obama, and provided him with an endless supply of money and volunteers. He has been winning college students and young adults overwhelmingly, and they are the small donors fueling his money machine. They were behind him when the black community was solidly behind Clinton.

Without the Iran vote, MoveOn would have at best been a non-factor. Without MoveOn, Obama would have never won Iowa. Without Iowa, Obama would have been another Mosley-Braun, while Clinton would have wrapped up the nomination on Super Tuesday, just as she thought God intended.

Worst...President....EVER

Bush has stated multiple times that "history will vindicate" his presidency. For that to happen, he will have to wait for at least one new generation of historians.

A survey of his contemporary historians shows they are less than impressed with him. A full 98% chose "failure" when asked if his Presidency was a success or failure. When asked who was the worst president, 61% stated "Bush". In contrast, in 2004, only 12% rated him "worst ever".

“It would be difficult to identify a President who, facing major international and domestic crises, has failed in both as clearly as President Bush,” concluded one respondent. “His domestic policies,” another noted, “have had the cumulative effect of shoring up a semi-permanent aristocracy of capital that dwarfs the aristocracy of land against which the founding fathers rebelled; of encouraging a mindless retreat from science and rationalism; and of crippling the nation’s economic base.”

All in all, it maybe a long time before history books sing Bush's praises, unless the Texas Board of Education selects them all.

Worst President Ever

McCain flunks Iraq Current Events Quiz

Last week McCain demonstrated that he did not know the difference between a Sunni and Shiite. He also falsely accused Iran of training Al Qaeda, which even Joe Lieberman corrected him on.

This week, he is confused about the cease-fire, stating that Al Sadr asked for it and calling that a victory, when in fact Maliki asked for it. By McCain's logic, that makes Sadr the winner in this round. The fact that Iran is the key player in this, not the US, underscores who the defeat of Saddam Hussein has weakened US influence in the region and strengthened Iran.

If McCain is going to make Iraq his primary issue, he should at least get the basic concepts done. He has already admitted that "economics isn't his thing". He has demonstrated that even he cannot live by the McCain-Feingold law. Now he is demonstrating that foreign policy "isn't his thing." For a guy with 30 years in Washington, he seems pretty out of touch and out of his depth.