This about sums it up

[GTAVercetti 0]

From reason.com:

Now that Joan Baez has hit Crawford and pro-war counter-protestors are in place at the Bush summer retreat, the full-scale Vietnam re-enactment (domestic division) can swing into operation. Too bad it all has very little salience for today's world. For proof of that, look no further than the Democratic Party's confusion over how to proceed.

Stuck in an old guns-or-butter mindset, the Dems truly fear being portrayed as "soft" on defense if they ask for, let alone demand, a clear Iraq plan from the Bush administration. However, it is not a matter of soft or hard but one of coherence. From the outset the Bush plan for Iraq was strategically incoherent, turning as it did on objectives -- a proto-democratic Iraq, an intimidated and non-nuclear Iran -- that were not achievable via force of arms alone. The Democrats' confusion on this point reveals that they still have no firmer grasp of geopolitical realities than do the Republicans, a sobering thought indeed.

So in place of competing ideas about policy, get set for volleys of invective, motive questioning, and serial character assassination. Just like the good old days.

Why yes, my license number is a palindrome. Thank you for noticing.