"This Robert: Yeah, mea culpa, Iraq has been weighing heavily on my mind these days. "

It seems to me that in general, things are going quite well in Iraq. They are going so well that by the time the election comes around it will probably be an non-issue. It seems that the Dems are rushing to a hanging, problem is, it's theirs.
About the only bad thing you can say about Bush is the increase in govt spending and not decreasing the size of govt- in other words Bush is cooperating too much with the Dems, and Dems are doing nothing other than snipe and hinder appoints of reasonable judges.
If things continue, then Dems are going to lose, if Bush grabs a good issue, starts running with it, then Dems will get slaughtered- I think it's just matter of proper timing.
I predict that Newt, "shall return"- though he shot myself in the foot with his attack on State dept- not that he was particularly wrong, it's just was a bad political move.