War is the next president's responsibility

Thomas Ricks, the Washington Post reporter who wrote Fiasco, was interviewed on NPR today. He spoke of the Petreaus hearings as Congress giving a yellow light, and almost a green light, to the Bush administration's continuance of the war in Iraq. That means the war will be the next president's responsibility.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out in terms of the presidential race. The people I talked with in DC this summer spoke of a partisan atmosphere and a "broken" legislative system unlike they had ever seen. This was coming from people who had worked on the hill for a long time and not media hyperbole. They pointed out that a nice slice of the Senate is running for president (6%) and this is a reason that business will slow down and give way to partisan posturing.

This fact can only aid the Democrats. If Ricks analysis proves to be correct as I think it will, it will be a nearly impossible race for the Democrats to loose in the general election. Likewise I think it favors Hillary in the primary. All Democratic voters have to do is play it safe, go with experience over the fresh-yet-untested-new-face (Obama) and they will win.