Democrats Increasingly United, But Not Republicans

If the media types in Washington who represent 'conventional wisdom' were in business or the sciences, their many wrong assessments would have them out of work or at least penalized by now, but we know that's not the way Washington works. The Pew Poll reports that Democrats are actually relatively united on Iraq whereas it's the Republicans who show signs of being divided; Jonathan Singer of MYDD has more on the story:

Overall, 52 percent of Americans favor placing a timeline of withdrawing troops from Iraq, a figure that is "virtually identical to that seen since mid-July of 2005." The stability of this number is striking given the temporary bumps given to the administration by events such as the killing of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi -- but also given Americans growing pessimism about the direction of the conflict (and the growing possibility of a Civil War, in particular).

So what does it all mean? The data released by Pew strongly support the contention made by Chris, Rick, Matt and Joel that, "Candidates should run aggressively on accountability and the war in Iraq." If Democratic candidates try to blur the line between their position on Iraq and that of their Republican opponent, they do so at their own peril. Americans are ready to see change in the policy towards Iraq -- they're not only ready, they're clamoring for it -- and if the Democratic Party is unable to offer that change, it runs the risk of blowing it's best opportunity for Congressional pick-ups in more than a decade.

It's time to lead.