Some people seem to be forgetting that Barack Obama was against the Iraq War before the Iraq War started, as a candidate for Senate, which was a notable and brave position for him to take. He headlined large, antiwar gatherings. At this time, his election to the Senate was by no means assured, and most Dem candidates and Senators were either ducking the question or endorsing the war.

The extent of movement toward the Dems in Illinois was by no means clear at that time, and Obama appeared to have extremely competitive opponents in both the primary (multimillionaire Blair Hull, who was ahead in the polls at the time due to lots of ads/name recognition) and the coming general election (young centrist investment banker turned Catholic school teacher Jack Ryan).

Deciding that things weren't working in Nov. 2005 and declaring the war a mistake, as John Edwards and others did, while commendable to a certain extent, was a bit late to the game if we are going to accurately measure anti-war bona fides, not to mention acting on the courage of one's convictions.

Some people now think that Obama should be vociferously calling for immediate, rather than phased, withdrawal, but I think there's a far better argument against that today (something along the lines that we owe it to Iraqis to do what we can to end this thing quickly but with the least spillage of add'l blood possible) than for supporting Bush pre-war (knowing that al-Qaeda and WMD in Iraq were doubtful at best, that the Bush Admin. had a history of mendacity and doubtful competence, and that they had absolutely no idea what to do once we took over Iraq; all of these were documented pre-war).

You can make the earlier Kerry/Edwards argument that the vote was to allow the President to pressure Iraq, but that really only gets you partway, given that you knew there was only one vote and once you gave authorization, there was nothing you could do to prevent him from going to war regardless of what add'l facts and evidence came to light in the coming months.

Mitt Romney has made a deal to have Massachusetts State Troopers arrest and detain illegal immigrants. We'll see if their first course of action will be to go after the illegal immigrants Romney has employed as gardeners.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/12/03/troopers_can_arrest_illegal_immigrants_in_romney_deal?mode=PF

Given that he's done nothing to combat a rising murder rate in Boston, I guess Mitt thinks illegal immigration is the most pressing public safety concern for the people of the Commonwealth. That and guarding the entrance to the Big Dig connector tunnel that is still closed indefinitely following the collapse of its ceiling.