He counted on his supporters to say it didn't matter whether his facts were right or wrong, because his heart was in the right place. And you have.

I agree that now he is counting on his supporters to 'not care' just as you said. He really has no where else to turn. This is not a good position for a politician to be in, especially one elected by a minority. How could he feel that his base was strong enough support an intentional lie?

However I am guilty of supporting him regardless, because his 'heart was in the right place' so to speak. I don't think my support will be enough to keep him in office.

Of course my real reason for supporting this, and whether this whole thing will be considered a success by me is not whether we see WMD (I never really cared for that or beleived in it) but whether we see a democracy emerge or see it hijacked by an Ayotolla(sp). We will find out soon enough. I am optomistic about the state of Iraq, which from my sources apears pretty good and am very pleased on its affects on Iran and Libya and even Israel. Though I was wrong about the effect on Saudi Arabia.

What I had predicted was that Iran and Saudi Arabia (and perhaps other counties in the region) would receive impetous to push themselfs into a freer democracy.

I had not expected the blood money to stop flowing to the PLO (bonus)
I had not expected Libya to be scared into line (another bonus)

These gains will all be solidified and perhaps more and different gains realized if Iraq can maintain a democracy.

Somehow, I don't find this at all comforting.

I don't see how. A world leader just can't stand up and say "ok half of my allies in the middle east are sorry SOBs as much as my enemies there. I want to destabalyze the current totalitarian governments by introducing a strong new democracy into the region." Then use the corrupt governments you just slapped in the face with that statement to sit back and not fight tooth and nail the blatant restacking of their geopolitical deck of cards against thier favor.

I don't find it comforting either that you would expect those dumbed down soundbytes to really hold any weight in the first place.

If Bush looses the next election despite this, my hat will be off to him. He will have sacrificed his second term to do a good thing that most other politicians are too chicken to do and the world will be better for it. Even if this was a success I was not sure this war would be good for him.

Furthermore if Dean is elected I won't be too down as long as he keeps his current gun rights record.