Posted by: McQ on Thursday, November 09, 2006 In a comment thread with one of our regular commenters, I noted that now the hard part comes, Dems have to actually do something instead of criticize. He replied by saying that should be no problem since the bar of expectation was set very low. I beg to differ. Whether Dems like it or not, they have taken ownership of Iraq. Now that's problematic for several reasons, many of them technical. But the other is about expectations they've sold to be elected. In reality they have little real authority over the armed forces or foreign policy. But their problem is they sold themselves as being able to do something about both. So the bar of expectation is very high, at least on the issue of Iraq. And as we've been told by the experts and Democrats, this election was apparently all about Iraq. As the Democrats are becoming fond of saying, "the American people have spoken". The rest of that statement though is they expect Democrats to make good on their promise. That's why they gave them the ball. It is hard to deny that Pelosi, et al, were and are encouraging the belief that Dems will actually be able to do something about Iraq. Pelosi, who voted against invading Iraq, said the Democrats' victory meant the American people were calling for a "new direction."Of course in the post-election ruins, Bush is being fairly conciliatory rhetorically. But in reality that means nothing concerning how he will choose to conduct the war in Iraq: Bush countered by saying his leadership style will not change.If I had to guess, nothing much different is going to happen in Iraq prior to Bush leaving office and he's certainly going to give Gen. Casey the "12 to 18 months" he thinks he needs. And my guess is if Iraq gets worse, Republicans will try to find a way to blame it on Democrats. In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, which can be seen here, she's asked about the Rumsfeld resignation. She says that she was glad President Bush had heard the "voice of the American people (that new 'meme' I talked about)" and that he'd also heard the "voice of the military", equating the single editorial run in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine times, all Gannett properties, as that voice. Then she made an amazing statement, speaking of Iraq: "This isn't a war to win, this is a situation to be solved. You can define winning anyway you want too, but you must solve the problem". And that problem is? See, this is all happy talk. While it may sound impressive to some it's verbal vacuity. What is the problem? How will it be solved? More importantly, how can Pelosi and a Democratic Congress solve it? You see, it is the Democrats who've set the bar. And they've set it high (solve "the problem" in two years). Trust me, the Republicans are going to remind the voting public of this at every opportunity. As EJ Dionne notes today: But many of the party's successful candidates ran as moderates, and Democrats hold power on the basis of a loan of votes from middle-of-the-road Americans who simply could not stomach Bush Republicanism anymore. The loan can be recalled at any moment.The clock on loan repayment has begun to tick. All I have to say is they better find a way to pay-up before '08 or they will likely be back out in the cold. The middle is theirs for the moment, and they better do something to convince that group to stay with them through '08 and they better do it quickly and convincingly. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TrackBacks | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Return to Main Blog Page | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Comments For This Post | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Previous Comments to this Post |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Add Your Comment | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| Vicious Capitalism |
Buy Dale's Book!
|
