Much has been made of Vice President Al Gore’s failure, back in 2000, to fully utilize President Bill Clinton on the campaign trail during the general election contest against then Governor George Bush.  Many unhappy democrats — when they got done blaming Ralph Nader, David Boies, elderly Floridians, the butterfly ballot, etc. — complained that had Gore just used Clinton more in the campaign he would surely have won the election.  Well, fast forward to 2008, where former President Clinton is a constant fixture both in his wife Hillary’s Presidential campaign and in those sort of headlines which that self-same campaign dreads, and maybe Mr. Gore doesn’t look so foolish after all.

First we had the roundly condemmed series of unfortunate comments in New Hampshire and South Carolina, “Fairy tale” or “Jesse Jackson won South Carolina…“.  Now we have Bill’s innaccurate and distracting attempts to defend Mrs. Clinton against the press infactuation with her inflated and inaccurate remarks about her visit to Bosnia in 1996.  In this latest round he has managed to reintroduce, much to the press’ delight, an issue which had finally died down, and gave it new currency, with just over a week left before Pennsylvania votes.

It is looking as though unless he himself is the candidate Mr. Clinton is not such a sure asset on the stump after all.

I have just finished watching Nightline on the Mickey Mouse network, and Terry Moran held a pretty good interview with General Petreaus and Ambassador Crocker. What I really want to see, however, is someone, anyone, who will take the high podium, the bully pulpit, and say the truth. I want to hear someone say, “Look, we all know we were hoodwinked into this war, but this is where we are now and we had best figure out a good way out.”

The Democrats are not saying this. Neither Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama are willing to own up to the uncomfortable fact that even if we are appalled at how we got into this mess, it is our mess and we owe it to the Iraqis and the world to get out properly.

The Republicans will not own up to it either. Mr. McCain has the distinction, however, of coming the closest to that. His formulation is that he wouldn’t have done it this way, but we have to see it through. He has only to pivot slightly (and don’t doubt that he can) and he can just as easily claim to have been against this misadventure all along.

What the public is thirsting for is not so much change as honesty. It may seem like change at first blush, but only because this is the most honesty impaired administration of all time (no, not since Nixon — of all time). The change that people really want is for their government to trust them enough to tell them the truth, and any wannabe administration will do themselves a huge favor if they get that process started now.

I prescribe this:

• Tell the truth — It was a mistake to start this war
• Tell the uncomfortable truth — We own this, and we cannot just walk away
• Describe the next step — We need a plan to get out, and we cannot just run away (see George Packer)
• Plan for truth and reconciliation — We must learn how this happened and how to prevent it happening again
• Realign the region — We cannot get out as long as the region is as frightfully misaligned as it currently is. We must work to achieve true realignment, which means talking to Iran, Syria and (ick) Hessbollah.

I am no Mid-East expert, but I can clearly see that we must do at least this if we are ever to gain respite from the hell that Bush/Cheney has visited upon us and Iraq. I only hope that one of our candidates will see this as well. Posturing is one thing, but leadership calls for more than postures, it calls for vision, action and sometimes a little discomfort.

Bring on the discomfort. Now.

I just read an interesting piece by Roland S. Martin over on Anderson Cooper’s 360 blog. In it he examines the controversial sermon delivered by Rev. Jeremiah Wright which has been much touted as an example of the Rev.’s intemperance. Here is an excerpt:

One of the most controversial statements in this sermon was when he mentioned “chickens coming home to roost.” He was actually quoting Edward Peck, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan’s terrorism task force, who was speaking on FOX News. That’s what he told the congregation.
Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive – The full story behind Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s 9/11 sermon « – Blogs from CNN.com

Please chase the link, this is a column worth reading.

I haven’t quoted Robert Fisk, the Independent’s intrepid Mideast correspondent, in quite a while. But, on this, the fifth anniversary of that indefensible misadventure into Iraq, it just feels right. Here is an excerpt from his latest:

… Churchill and Roosevelt argued about the timing of the announcement that war in Europe had ended. And it was the Russians who pipped them to the post. But we told the truth. When the British were retreating to Dunkirk, Churchill announced that the Germans had “penetrated deeply and spread alarm and confusion in their tracks”.

Why didn’t Bush or Blair tell us this when the Iraqi insurgents began to assault the Western occupation forces? Well, they were too busy telling us that things were getting better, that the rebels were mere “dead-enders”.

On 17 June 1940, Churchill told the people of Britain: “The news from France is very bad and I grieve for the gallant French people who have fallen into this terrible misfortune.” Why didn’t Blair or Bush tell us that the news from Iraq was very bad and that they grieved – even just a few tears for a minute or so – for the Iraqis?

For these were the men who had the temerity, the sheer, unadulterated gall, to dress themselves up as Churchill, heroes who would stage a rerun of the Second World War, the BBC dutifully calling the invaders “the Allies” – they did, by the way – and painting Saddam’s regime as the Third Reich.
Robert Fisk: The only lesson we ever learn is that we never learn – Robert Fisk, News – Independent.co.uk