Iraq and the 2008 US Election

It was just this past spring that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was proclaiming:

"We're going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war," Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) told reporters yesterday. "Senator Schumer has shown me numbers that are compelling and astounding."

The Democrats clearly understood that the worse the situation in Iraq became, the better their electoral prospects.

It was just this past summer that House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn worried that a positive report on the surge in September by General David Petraeus would be “a big problem for us”.

The Democrats clearly understood that the better the situation in Iraq became, the worse their electoral prospects.

It was just this month that House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey was speculating that violence was down in Iraq because the terrorists "are running out of people to kill,” and because “[t]here are fewer targets of opportunity.”

The Democrats clearly understand that the better the American people understand that the situation in Iraq is improving, the worse their electoral prospects.

American Thinker

What is Speaker Pelosi saying about Iraq these days?

Nancy Pelosi stoutly maintains her state of denial, saying this about the war just two weeks ago: "This is not working. . . . We must reverse it." A euphemism for "abandon the field," which is what every Democratic presidential candidate is promising, with variations only in how precipitous to make the retreat.

Washington Post

It seems as if US Democratic Party leaders are hoping for a US disaster in Iraq so as to get more of their candidates elected in 2008.

Violence is down. Iraqis are returning. The American people are beginning to see this progress, despite the efforts of Democrats and many in the media to hide it from them.

For now, the number of Iraqis returning may seem small compared to an estimated 2 million that have fled. But the number is growing faster than anyone has anticipated. And those returning are not returning as targets of opportunity for terrorists, but as participants in the opportunity for freedom.

To the extent that the war in Iraq will play a significant role in the 2008 elections, the numbers should be compelling and astounding to Democrats, in a direction they never could have imagined just a few months ago.

American Thinker

No one knows what will happen between now and November 2008. The world may be destroyed by an errant asteroid or gamma ray pulse. But when the media or a political party studiously ignores a phenomenon that is obvious to everyone else, they lose credibility that took decades to build.