President Bush (remember him?) says that the fighting in Basra is "A defining moment in the history of a free Iraq."

It is a history that will be remembered for 100 years if John McCain, age 847, is elected president in November.

Of course, all nations have a defining moment and it's often a bloody one.  Bush is right, this is a defining moment.

And Iraq will be defined as, um, Star Wars.  Ish. well it's not but if I cram all the history together into a jumble and you read it really fast, you will see that Bush is right:

Nouri Maliki was just a talented politician until he forged an alliance with the charismatic Shia Moqtada al Sadr.  Sadr thrust Maliki into power but then Maliki turned on Sadr.  The two reached an uneasy truce which lasted until a few days ago.  Now Maliki is personally leading Iraqi security forces and some ragtag militias against Sadr and his Sadrists (who need a better name) and George Bush thinks this is some sort of victory for the Iraqi government that we installed when really Maliki isn't doing so well and Sadr has responded to Maliki's calls that he lay down his arms and get out of Basra by saying "No, you lay down your arms and get out of Basra!"

Don't forget that Maliki and Sadr used to like each other.

Remember when we used to argue about whether or not Iraq had fallen into civil war?  Well now we have to redefine that.  A civil war usually has a few distinct players.  This is an all out grab for power as Iraq's government fails again.

A defining moment, indeed.

For the next 100 years.  Remember that.  John McCain isn't troubled by any of this.

This isn't a post I wanted to write.  It's frankly a little embarassing given some of the things I've written on this site.

After Obama's race speech I decided that I'd stop calling Obama a wimp.  I decided to only make affirmative statements about Hillary's toughness.

Now I'm having trouble with that one, too.  She isn't exhibiting the kind of toughness that I wanted and expected. I thought that she would savage John McCain, age 847, in both the primaries and in the general.  I gave her the benefit of the doubt when she went after Obama instead, reasoning that she had to deal with the upstart first. But her attacks on Obama haven't been that impressive.  If she had aggressively steered the campaign towards her strength (her superior understanding of policy) I'd have been very impressed. Instead, well, I don't know what she's doing.  But it's not "tough."

Then she sits down with Richard Mellon Scaife.  Why?  If somebody had spent millions of dollars on private investigators in an attempt to ruin me, and in the process unleashed David Brock's stilted prose on the world, you would not be able to get me in a room with that person.  Because there would be a restraining order.  Richard Mellon Scaife is exactly the sort of guy that I thought Hillary would be able to shut down.

I've supported Hillary Clinton because I know how nasty the Republicans will be to our next president and because I assumed that like Bill, she'd be able to fight back against it.  I actually assumed she'd do better than Bill because she's politically battle hardened and because the current crop of Republicans have nothing on Newt Gingrich.

This should have been obvious to the Clinton campaign.  Everyone top to bottom should have understood that her supporters expected political smarts and toughness.  When she said she was "experienced" she should have been talking about her political experience -- more about what she's seen and been through than what she's done. Instead she exagerates her Bosnia landing as if I ever cared whether or not she's taken sniper fire.

I can blame Mark Penn for this, but if she didn't stand up to him then she's not who I thought she was, or wanted her to be.