The Politics of the Rat in the Hole

A friend emails:

November less relevant. Likely 9pm call. Assuming economy does not double/triple dip, then as of today, the only pol with a chance of beating Bush is Tony Blair. I've always believed that the only real swing state in this election was in Tikrit.

Dorothy called up in tears of joy this a.m. that they had captured
Saddam in the same town where her daughter is stationed. (still, I expect
she will vote D)

As for Dems, I think this is the end of Clark. His whole logic is about
Iraq and he'd run it better. He will soon go back to cable news comentary.

Dean even to down. He still has the network, but his rationale -- I always
said this was dumb -- is less relevant. He needs to change message to
domestic, defecit, and al qaeda.

Gephardt (unions, NAFTA) and Kerry have a chance to get second wind as they have (especially gephardt) a non-Iraq message. Lieberman may have chance to get second wind on the "i was right to support
war--and I knew the problems of rebujlding"

Edwards may have chance because he is a white slate.

As for the arab dictators like Assad who have played footsie between us and the terrorists, they are going to call Bush, saying "how about that Pettite deal?" and changiing their style or they too will be riding on the dustbin of history.