Consider this stubborn fact: "There will actually be 7,000 more troops in Iraq next summer than there were before Bush deployed additional forces to Iraq in January as part of a troop surge plan to quell sectarian violence," ABC's Martha Raddatz and Jennifer Parker report. That's hardly the scorecard Democrats wanted to be able to point to when they took control of Congress eight months ago.
"It has been clear this week that the Democrats have too few votes to impose any real constraints on Mr. Bush's policy, leaving the war's harshest critics frustrated and angry," write Steven Lee Myers and Carl Hulse of The New York Times. "With so many troops remaining in Iraq well into 2008, the debate over the war is likely to intensify during the presidential campaign."
"Bush continues to stake his presidency on the chance for a military and political turnaround in Iraq before he leaves office," writes USA Today's Susan Page. By the time the strategy is reassessed in March, Page writes, "the spate of early primaries are likely to have chosen the presidential nominees. Whether to limit the mission or significantly reduce the troop presence in Iraq will turn out to be up to one of them."
The loudest Democratic voice last night belonged to the man who paid to have it heard: former senator John Edwards, D-N.C. Freed of the burden of actually having to vote for anything, he continued to push his party in a direction that congressional leaders -- and at least two of his notable presidential rivals -- really don't want to go: toward cutting off funding for the war.
"Our troops are stuck between a president without a plan to succeed and a Congress without the courage to bring them home," Edwards said in his post-speech video ad (simultaneously running against two of the most unpopular political institutions in recent history).
Toss in some Chris Dodd (threaten funding if there's no withdrawal plan) and some Bill Richardson (take every single US troop out of Iraq), and maybe a touch of Joe Biden (split up Iraq), and it's a minefield for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., not to mention their colleagues who want to make their futures in Congress.
Obama's response to his fellow Democrats: "If anybody disputes that we can get more than one or two brigades out per month, then they should talk with the military experts because I think it's very important for us to do this in a responsible and safe way," he said yesterday, per The Des Moines Register's Jason Clayworth.