Peter Beinart notices a slow but inexorable drift among the Democratic candidates to either propose meaningless solutions to the Iraq situation (getting more foreign troops when no one will send them) or dangerous non-solutions (reduce our troop levels in a way that makes Iraq less stable). At this point, Dennis Kucinich is more coherent than anyone else. But they are all slowly meandering toward his isolationist and utterly reckless position. Money data:
A CBS poll in late August found that 53 percent of Democrats wanted the United States to either increase troop levels in Iraq or hold them steady, versus 37 percent who wanted to decrease the number. By last week, that figure had reversed itself. In a late October Washington Post/ABC News poll, 54 percent of Democrats said the “U.S. should withdraw forces from Iraq to avoid casualties,” while only 40 percent wanted to keep them there.
Maybe this is 1972 all over again, after all.
The Dish 