SOTU: Mr. President, What About Iraq?

SOTU: Mr. President, What About Iraq?

54% Disapprove
of Bush
39% Approve

Single Goal to Achieve This Year
Bring Troops Home 35%
Health Care 20%
Economy/Jobs 17%
Simplify Medicare RX 11%
Cut Deficit 8%
Cut Taxes 7%

MSNBC/Wall
Street Journal Poll

Good morning, Mr. President, now you know how Nixon felt. He's
the only modern president to have approval ratings lower than yours.

Nothing alarms me more than Bush's illegal wiretapping scheme. But then I'm not facing
IEDs, kidnappers and insurgents in Iraq. However, the American people are willing to give Bush some rope on domestic wiretapping… on which
to hang himself: 56% of America are “very concerned” it could be abused.
If the situation is explained, all bets are off for Bush. However, there's one subject that puts all systems on red alert without explanation.

Today, 65% of the American people want to bring the troops home,
up 6% in a month. It's the one main event on their minds.

We have watched Jill Carroll's latest horrific hostage video,
seen Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt blown apart by an IED, which led to an ambush,
with yet another tape of al-Zawahiri being broadcast from Al-Jazeera, only this
time he was in a studio looking as defiant as the devil himself.

Christiane Amanpour described the frightening situation in Iraq in depressing
detail.

… by (any) indicator Iraq is a black
hole. … Yes, the U.S. has promise reconstruction, but the United States inspector
general for reconstruction is about to come out with a report that is saying
that it is just not going apace and that it is difficult to see, according to

this report, how they are ever going to get what they promised done. Which means,
according to a new poll that is coming out today, that most of the Iraqi people
are now losing hope that the promised reconstruction is going to happen and
that the quality of their lives is going to increase. This is a big drama because
hope is the only thing they have in the middle of this spiralling security disaster.
And by any indication whether you take the number of journalists killed or wounded,
whether you take the number of American soldiers killed or wounded, whether
you take the number of Iraqi soldiers killed and wounded, contractors, people
working there, it just gets worse and worse. Larry
King “Live”

As I posted yesterday, 50,000 troops are being redeployed, as
Bush's back-door draft continues.

So, tomorrow the President will talk about the global war on terror,
speaking as the commander in chief.

The Democratic Party will offer up a fine new governor, but unless
he's the Democratic version of Rudy Giuliuni, what good will it do?

The opposition party always has this challenge, but right now
it is drawn in stark relief. Who will be our national security voice, our out
of power presidential persona? In fact, taking it a step further, what is our
message on Iraq? —insert silence and a powerful leadership vacuum here— Perhaps it's time to draft Wesley Clark on all matters of war, because what we're offering up now isn't cutting it.

Since we don't have a national security leader, then someone better
at least talk about the one thing on the people's mind, on which George W. Bush
will not budge or change. Iraq. Because the message out of the NBC/Wall Street
Journal poll is Iraq-Iraq-Iraq. What to do, how to do it and who will lead us
through it? This is one question that hasn't changed or been answered in months.

President Bush will be in full Terror Guy persona during his SOTU
speech.

Democrats need to find a message and some sort of plan, because
the way to victory in 2006 is through Iraq.