Give the Leader a Clue, O Lord!

I know at some point it becomes redundant, but: How stupid do these people think we really are?

The president spoke to reporters at the White House after Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said on a San Antonio, Texas, radio station that "the idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong."

Bush was asked about Dean's comments during a photo-op after meeting with Lee Jong-Wook, director general of the World Health Organization.

"Oh, there's pessimists, you know, and politicians who try to score points," the president replied. "Our troops need to know that the American people stand with them, and we have a strategy for victory."

Does he mean the 35 pages of uselesness he recently released? Or is there some other "strategy" he doesn't want to let us in on? Because nobody but W. seems to see the U.S. getting anywhere in this mess.

And then there's the Vice President:

"To leave that country before the job is done would be to hand Iraq over to car bombers and assassins," Cheney said. "That nation would return to the rule of tyrants and become a massive source of instability in the Middle East."

Um, yes, Mr. Vice-President; and Iraq right now differs from that grim prognostication how, exactly? Clearly, asking for coherency from this Administration is a waste of time:

Several leading Senate Democrats sent Bush a letter today calling on him to articulate specific military, economic and political benchmarks to be met in order to begin withdrawing U.S. soldiers from Iraq.

"We hope that in your speech tomorrow you will set aside the public relations campaign and deliver the plan all Americans are seeking," wrote Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Carl Levin of Michigan and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

That, by the way, was yesterday's news. This is today's, and the speech Reid was referring to.