You know, my last post requires some revisiting. Ford may not have been a cheerleader in chief, which is why (I think, and off the top of my head) Whip Inflation Now really had little force behind it. But the 60 minutes story on Betty Ford reminded me of what an extraordinarily decent man Gerald Ford was, which is a thing in itself. If only Nixon could go to China and Bill Clinton could reform Welfare, maybe only Ford could pardon Nixon. Anyone else, and the Congress might well have stepped in to nullify the pardon, or do some other thing.

And Ford brings us back to Vietnam. Frank Rich actually nails my thoughts fairly closely (usually he is a bit too much for my tastes). The issue of this surge is Vietnam versus Czechoslovakia. When the Soviets invaded Czecko in ’68, they dropped on them like a ton of bricks. If this “surge” is not a ton of bricks, then it is more like the escalation in Vietnam, giving an enemy more targets, and turning neutrals or friends into enemies. Lindsey Graham, on Meet the Press on Sunday, kept asking whether we want to think about what happens if we lose in Iraq. He didn’t want, I think we have to now.