To hope that this last-ditch attempt to salvage something from Bush's mistakes works doesn't sweep those mistakes under the rug. He's put the country into a terrible bind, and the best we can hope for is to get out of it with a minimum of further pain and loss.

The glee with which partisans get in our faces and sneer "well, what's your plan for fixing it, huh? huh?" is rather sad. It doesn't in any way vindicate Bush that his mistakes have created a mess so horrible that we all are having a hard time figuring out how to fix it. Our Nimrod-in-Chief is disastrously inadequate for the job, and for our own protection, we have to do what we can to help him out. Not for the sake of his political legacy, but for our country's survival.