George's War

"And here I think we get back to the root of the matter: We are bigger than Iraq." Talking Points Memo (08.24.07):

"By that I do not mean we, as America, are bigger or better than Iraq as a country. I mean that that sum of our national existence is not bound up in what happens there. The country will go on. Whatever happens, we'll recover from it.

And whatever might happen, there are things that matter much more to this country's future -- like whether we have a functioning military any more, whether our economy is wrecked, whether this country tears itself apart over this catastrophe. But we'll go on and look back at this and judge what happened.

Hoagland, Not Whacked

"Not so for the president. For him, this is it. He's not bigger than this. His entire legacy as president is bound up in Iraq."

"Which is another way of saying that his legacy is pretty clearly an irrecoverable shambles."