The Democrats ran on the war, corruption, and bloated budgets in 2006.

The Republicans lost because they forgot what being "Republican" means.

The Democratic "base" now knows damn well how sincere the Democrats really are about stopping the war. Add to that the piles of pork they had to load into the bill to pass it, and everyone can also see how serious they are about earmarks and unnecessary spending.

The corruption issue hasn't really floated to the top yet with all the rest going on--the lobbyists happily changing their rolodexes, the crooks still in office and on committees, and the "new boss, same as the old boss"--but it will.

In short, 2008 could be very interesting.

What if Iran tries a major escalation? What if our Arab allies start denying us bases and staging rights? What if trouble breaks out in some other part of the world? What if we suffer a major battlefield reverse? What if our elected government there starts herding Sunnis into concentration camps? The election is almost two years away, anything could happen.

Iran has problems of its own right now. The hard-to-spell president has just noticed that his position is a little rocky, and has decided being out of town wouldn't be a good idea. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on whose doing the rocking, and I'm not sure on that yet. Smartest thing in the world Bush could do is just stand back and watch.

As for the rest, what if the opposite happens? As long as we're doing "what ifs."