Time To Go

There is a new talking point going around the right-wing blogs that what Americans actually voted for in November was victory in Iraq... and the evil Democrats are failing to deliver this!!

There are several problems with this. One is that for right-wingers to believe this, they'd have to acknowledge that President Bush failed to deliver victory, hence the rebuke of his policies in the midterms. Of course, they'd sooner perform an abortion than admit that. The second is-- and this is the most complicated one-- that 'victory' is no longer possible in Iraq. Survival, yes. 'Victory', no. The third thing is that this is just a lie. The message between the two parties was clear... Republicans wanted to continue the war; Democrats wanted to start getting out. Voters preferred the latter message.

The most recent polling confirms that. The polls shows a slight improvement in Congress's approval ratings (because, really, they had nowhere to go but up after last year). Moreover, the poll " indicates the public wants Congress to push for an end to a war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,200 U.S. troops."

To the extent that voters are dismayed at the congressional leadership, it's because they don't think they are doing a good enough job working toward that end. There's probably some disagreement on how to achieve that goal, but what people believe is clear... it's time to get going.