Re Holy Moly

The inevitable spin out of the Bush Administration will be that the NIE is proof that their approach on Iran has worked. In fact, expect to hear and read lots of analysis and punditry about how Chris Hill’s success in North Korea, positive surge-induced developments in Iraq, the promise of progress emanating from Annapolis and even, why not, Venzuela’s narrow rebuff of Hugo Chavez are all the product of Bushian diplomacy. A quick check of conservative blogs yields no reaction yet, but it will come. As Joe points out, if the election next year is fought on domestic rather than national security grounds, history says that benefits the Democrats. But what if the GOP nominee doesn’t have to pretend he never heard of George W. Bush? It’s possible – perhaps likely — that independents and other swing voters have soured on Bush so irrevocably that no amount of improvement internationally will turn him into anything but a liability. We’ll see.