Don't overly rely on Real Clear Politics,
a conservative site, both in emphasis and ideology
(example from 01 June 2008: "Libertarians the Tie-Breaker?")

Saturday 26 April 2008
Canvassing Muncie Indiana,
the 20th century "Middletown"
an industrial city with a state university
--Ball State University (BSU), the Cardinals, named
for the Indiana state bird)--
with serious industrial hard times...

GreyHawk
has written
"George W. Bush: Mastering Pyrrhic Victories, Rewarding Failure"
(for the historical record, datestamp: Wed Dec 20, 2006 at 07:10:15 AM EST).

It is a superb essay--
as we've come to expect as part of DailyKos--
that cuts to the heart of the
Bush conservative "governance" disaster.

Here is the key conclusion
and call to action:

Rove surprise--shift to IRAQ government autonomy

It'll be vietnamization all over again.

Rove and Bush will announce
Iraq government has now acquired
the capability

to take autonomy
and USA will draw down
with all deliberate speed
(no timetable--reality will be years)

this miracle will be fruits
of US military's recent redeployment
and strenuous efforts in Baghdad
and elsewhere to quiet the civil war

and now the Iraqi government we support
will have to go on their own

"Declare victory and go home"
is the October surprise.

Why Rove thinks this way:

   1. the whole announcement and strategy
is entirely in Bush administration's hands
and control

   2. no risk to international community,
nor requirement of other nations to take
diplomatic risk

   3. announcement defangs the Iraqi issue
for American people and media; steals
thunder of the democratic opposition

   4. actually doesn't require ANY real change
on the ground, or actual immediate consequence--
just gets Rove and Company through the election

Mission accomplished . . .

Karl Rove is ruthless
and that absence of mercy
gives him a temporary
temporal power--the power of a man
who exploits the scruples and rules
of other people
against them.

Yet he is not much of an academic.

"Resist the unpopular Bush. Pass it on."

A slogan easy to understand

a slogan that carries its own truth

and carries its own carriage

as a self-propelled
artillery piece
is both powerful and mobile

the business people call this
viral marketing

the religious people call it
evangelizing the gospel
or spreading the good news

the political people
know it as popular uprising

the revolutionary No! in thunder!

the refusal to go along with the program

"Resist the unpopular Bush. Pass it on."