Your thesis holds only as long as one assumes the blame will stick to the Democrats. I believe this war is firmly fixed in the minds of the people of the United States and the world as the creation of Dick Cheney and Georgie McBush, sitting on his knee and smirking up. For better or worse, it is their war and they can't shake that off. Too many "I am the decider" speeches.

It's a gamble they have lost. The fact that they are spending lives and treasure putting off the inevitable day of reckoning does not make it any the less their war, their fault, their mistake, and their blunder.

One understands they themselves will not accept the blame. That's their psychological makeup, and one does not have to buy into it. No one will believe them any more than one believes the True Believers on these boards. The prisons are full of people who deny their crimes, and they are still in prison as society moves on.

The Ds can take credit for funding the fighting forces while not buying into the nonsense after the nonsense became more and more evident. No one credible is claiming the Emperor has clothes, or that he's not a woodenhead, or that Cheney has pulled the strings anymore.

And there will be a Demcratid President, I believe, because the responsibility will stick in America's mind and the American public does not share McBush's agenda any more. At all. Want's to be done.

Face it. America does not want it as much as the Iraqis. It's not our land, culture, language, society, or resources, though we will try desperately to maintain permanent military bases there to guard the oil fields so dearly purchased.

There's not much difference between the parties on that. They are both beholden to big business, including oil and pharmaceuticals.

But credit or guilt - McBush's. They have claimed it, and they'll get it.

Arf