Presidential Tidbits: While the President decides to go into "hey look at all I'm doing" re-election mode, maybe we should take a look at what else he "did." We have Powell now admitting that, yes, technically Al Qaida doesn't really seem to have connections with Iraq. He and others did kind of give us the impression they really really did, but hey, it's still possible. The Carnegie Endowment For International Peace report [clip] gives more evidence of how trumped up the "evidence" (again, hey, we had some, sure my report was supposed to be conclusive evidence not the "ham sandwich" needed to indict, so sue me) of WMDs was.

Kenneth Pollack, whose book in support of the need to go to war was quite influential, has a perhaps even more damning criticism given his role: "The war was not all bad. I do not believe that it was a strategic mistake, although the appalling handling of postwar planning was. ... That said, the case for war—and for war sooner rather than later—was certainly less compelling than it appeared at the time. At the very least we should recognize that the Administration's rush to war was reckless even on the basis of what we thought we knew in March of 2003. It appears even more reckless in light of what we know today. ... Fairly or not, no foreigner trusts U.S. intelligence to get it right anymore, or trusts the Bush Administration to tell the truth. The only way that we can regain the world's trust is to demonstrate that we understand our mistakes and have changed our ways."


And, as the President tries to take care of mostly forgotten Mexico, we can look back and see how we antagonized much of Latin America with our heavyhanded "our way or the hard way" strategy. See also, the Wes Clark alternative.

Meanwhile, the race is on to get this guy out of here. C-SPAN had a bunch of alternative candidates on (not third party, alternate Democratic and Republican candidates) last night. And, I thought no one in the party was fighting the President. Anyway, on the desperation front, there is Sen. Kerry, who is trying to show how he has the best experience in both the domestic and foreign policy front to win. Trouble is, and again his craggy/hangdog look suggests a tragic figure, these sorts just don't become presidential candidates, or rather win elections. Who was the last one with both? I guess Bush I, but he was vice president first. Same with Nixon. Kennedy was a lesser senator. And so on.

Finally, in non-political news, we have Pete Rose. ESPN Classic had a game of his on last night, toward the end of his career (9/11 1985 ... Tony Gwynn looking young, Bruce Bochy as a player, but Joe Morgan still was the announcer), when he broke some hitting record. Shoot, the guy isn't too old. Old enough though ... he had enough time to repent, but even now his former teammate thinks his "apology" is weak. If former teammate Joe Morgan questions his integrity, part of the requirements for entering the Hall of Fame, what hope does he really have? He also had the ill advised timing of releasing his book now, arguably upstaging the current entries into the HOF. If only there was a Hall of Infame ... quite a few infamous sorts did some impressive feats.

Oh well ... time to start the day.