No one knows for sure if Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. But its president gives every indication that it is.

Addressing a cheering crowd in Tehran on Wednesday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the United States and the European Union had failed in their efforts to prevent Iran from going nuclear. "They've tried by military threats . . . and political pressure to stop [us] from our luminous path. But today they have seen that all their planning has failed. Today the Iranian nation is standing on the nuclear heights."

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I have to recant. I'm always saying mean things about Charles Krauthammer. I admit it. It's just that ever since he interrupted our Yom Kippur synagogue service by bellowing at the rabbi for endorsing the concept of peace, I have thought him to be utterly unhinged.

No more. In today's Washington Post, he has advice for John McCain that is, as everybody says these days, "spot on."

In a column titled, "Make the Election About Iraq," Krauthammer urges his candidate to stake his whole candidacy on the utter rightness of the Iraq war. Krauthammer says that for McCain to run away from the sterling success of the war would make mean he is unfit to be President.

"McCain's case is not hard to make. Iraq is a three-front war -- against Sunni al-Qaeda, against Shiite militias and against Iranian hegemony -- and we are winning on every front:"

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I tend not to agree with James Carville about very much. But I do agree with him on this. Al Gore is, by far, the best candidate we could possibly have for Vice President.

I don't suppose many Democrats would disagree. But I do think that many would say that he'd never take it.

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Barack Obama plays for keeps.

He did not want the Jim Johnson flap to dominate the headlines so he accepted his resignation on the very day the first headlines appeared.

He understands just how much depends on his election and that he cannot let the campaign get bogged down on trivia. Jim Johnson, a good Democrat, also understands which is why he pulled the plug.

Obama just demonstrated that he knows how to play like Bill Clinton. Maybe he learned it by running against Hillary who learned it from Bill.

In any case, this is a new day for Democrats. This is a Democrat who acts swiftly and with resolution. Actually, it's not so new. It's very FDR.

Happy days are here again!

Since the winter, we've been going from Washington (actually Bethesda, Maryland) to Manhattan (Penn Station block) every other weekend. And we've taken the bus.

We taken Vamoose which is, of all things, a Hasidic-owned company that charges $25 each way with a free trip after every four paid trips. Vamoose is one of about a half dozen new bus companies that have sprung up recently just on this run.

In the winter the Vamoose drives made the trip in 3 hours and 40 minutes or so, which is better time than I've ever gotten by car. The buses are packed. I have never seen so many yuppie types on a bus. And everybody seems happy and amazed that the bus experience can be so pleasant.

But now it's summer.

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New York Times columnist, Bill Kristol, epitomizes neoconservatism. He is a direct descendant of the neocons' founding father and mother, Iriving Kristol and Getrude Himmelfarb. He is a de facto member of the other big neocon family (Norman Podhoretz, his wife Midge Decter, son John Podhoretz and step-son-in-law Elliot Abrams). He is also the most prominent and prolific neocon.

In his Times column today, Kristol says that for him, the number one issue in the 2008 election is Iraq and that it is their respective positions on the "surge" that should decide the election.

"Early 2007 was as close as we're going to get to a commander in chief moment for Senators McCain and Obama. They had to make a judgment in a difficult real-world situation -- not on the healed planet of Obama's dreams. With the Iraq war going badly, McCain took the lead in calling for a change in military strategy and a surge of troops. Obama, by contrast, went along with his party in urging withdrawal. Now, 18 months later, McCain seems pretty clearly to have been right," Kristol writes.

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