The Democrats must be feeling pretty good about things right now. They have waged a one-note campaign about the stupidity of George W. Bush since he won the 2000 election and their victory in the 2006 midterms finally, to them, validated their most passionate "position."
To the victors go the spoils so let's see what the Democrats have reaped:
Donald Rumsfeld is gone and Robert Gates has replaced him. This will result in not an iota of change in policy, as the Secretary of Defense is there to carry out the president's vision, and the president is in no mood - thank God - to surrender, as the Democrats wish he would. (Actually, they would first like him to get down on his knees, apologize to the world for "Iraq," and then surrender).
The Baker-Hamilton commission has issued its report and, wouldn't you know, except for sneakily trying to sell out Israel - how dare they not invite Israel to their proposed regional conference! - their 79 "recommendations" basically add up to the president's position of wanting our troops out without showing our enemies a timetable. But, to Democrats, the sheer number of Baker's "recommendations" highlights Bush's intellectual impoverishment - the president could never have thought of all those things! Classic Left-think, where quantity trumps quality.
Yes, the Dems, with their serious faces on, nodded their heads when Mr. Gates irresponsibly (and wrongly) said we were "losing" in Iraq. But you knew they derived deep pleasure from Gates's seeming validation of their only true belief: that they were all smarter than the president. What the cultured John Kerry couldn't do - expose Bush for the idiot the Left is convinced he is -- Robert Gates and James Baker would finally do through their invalidation of Bush's Middle East policies.
Unfortunately, the very talented and effective John Bolton was also on the Democrats' hit list. The change he was effectuating at the U.N. was palpable but unfortunately he had two things going against him: Democrats gave more consideration to his anger at a subordinate 25 years ago than they did to his extraordinary success in almost single-handedly bringing North Korea and Hezbollah to heel in the past 6 months - and, that he was an appointee of the man Al "We know that [Saddam] has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country" Gore says made the "worst strategic mistake in the history of the United States."
To Democrats it's still, "The president's stupid," stupid.
Bush, however, is anything but stupid. In fact, through the maelstrom of study groups and negative election results and losses of key members of his staff, our 43rd president has his eyes squarely on the single most important issue of our time -- preventing, at all costs, Iran from getting nukes, which he made clear at his joint press conference with Tony Blair today:
"(Iran) could use (a nuclear weapon) to blackmail Great Britain or America, or anybody else that doesn't kowtow to them [and] historians will look back and say, how come Bush and Blair couldn't see the threat? That's what they'll be asking. And I want to tell you, I see the threat and I believe it is up to our governments to help lead the forces of moderation to prevail. It's in our interests."
So while Democrats are more than happy to destroy their own president's credibility in the eyes of the world at this perilous time in world history, we can take comfort that through the tidal waves of condemnation, President Bush - bloodied but admirably unbowed - still sees and says what is important.
Democrats will continue to try to make the president look bad while, at the same time, attempting to convince us that global warming - not global war - is the real "threat" we face. Talk about stupid!