Dennis the Menace?

"The broader explanations are moral and ideological. At the time of Vietnam, many student radicals not only opposed the war, but also sympathized with the enemy. Many '60s radicals weren't just against American involvement in the war, but also in favor of what they saw as a liberation movement in Vietnam. Because the conflict began as a struggle against a European colonial power, it was possible, if naive, to view the Viet Cong as revolutionaries fighting against imperialism without actually being in favor of Communism. That view was undermined by subsequent events. But it didn't become transparently and obviously wrong until after the repression that followed the American exit in 1975. (Christopher Hitchens, a leading advocate and defender of the Iraq war, still admires Ho Chi Minh.)

"You have to credit the mainstream American left with learning from that mistake and with developing a greater recognition of moral complication in the years since. This time, opponents of the war do not oppose or vilify the troops. This time, they do not expect any good to flow from Iraq throwing off the yoke of foreign occupation. Opponents of the Iraq war generally appreciate that the issue of how and when to withdraw involves a choice among evils. And this time, there is no idealization of the enemy outside of a truly lunatic fringe. There's no latter-day Jane Fonda cheering on the Mahdi army. For the most part, Americans who want us to withdraw from Iraq aren't advancing any larger radical agenda. They're merely trying to end a war they think was a mistake."

Another discovery about prewar maneuvering, from London's Independent:

"The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

"A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

"In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, 'at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests.'

"Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been "effectively contained."

"He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed. 'I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed),' he said.

" 'At the same time, we would frequently argue when the US raised the subject, that 'regime change' was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos.' "

Barack Obama has more to say, to the Chicago Tribune:

"Obama said he viewed hype over his potential candidacy as 'transitory' and not something that would dictate his decision. He said he had no real concerns about his ability to put together a staff and raise the tens of millions of dollars he would need to wage a campaign against his potential opponents, including Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"But he said he would have to weigh heavily the burdens that a campaign would place on his family, with his wife and two young daughters, making sure they would not 'unduly suffer' from the hothouse atmosphere a White House run would create. 'Do I have something that is sufficiently unique to offer to the country that it is worth putting my family through a presidential campaign?' he said. 'Politically, I think I would be a viable candidate. So that's a threshold question and I wouldn't run if I didn't think I could win.' "

He said he did not want to be "the un-Hillary."

More chatter on Obama hype. Betsy Newmark weighs in:

"Great, voters like the candidate they know the least about. Once they find out more about a candidate, he starts looking like all the other politicians we've learned to dislike. This goes with George Will's recommendation that Obama run now before people get used to him and are no longer infatuated. Of course, that would mean that the media would have to actually examine Obama's positions and past votes instead of just writing articles about how popular he is.

"Can they keep up just writing worshipful articles without any real substance for almost two years? Sure, they can. But, history shows that the media eventually gets over their infatuation and then starts turning on the object of their affections. Will Obama's race, go[od] looks and soothing bromides be enough to keep the media and electorate in a full swoon through November, 2008? Perhaps . . . perhaps. Especially if the contrast is Hillary Clinton whom the media doesn't seem very fond of or a Republican whom the media will want to lose."

"The media" is an awfully big beast to say everyone in it wants the Republican to lose. What if it's John McCain, who many people believe seduced the press corps in 2000?

It had to happen: There's already an online Draft Obama petition. Sounds to me like he's willing to be drafted.

Rush Limbaugh takes aim at Maureen Dowd:

"RUSH: Now, apparently before he made the speech, Maureen Dowd had written something about his big ears. Obama, after the speech, made a beeline for Maureen Dowd who was in the audience to tell her that he didn't appreciate her writing about his big ears. Now, there's a lot of noise here and it's very muddy. I'll translate it for you, but here's how it sounded.

"OBAMA: Talk about my ears. So I just want to put you on notice, I'm very sensitive about -- what I told them was I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears.

"DOWD: We're just trying to toughen you up . . .

"RUSH: If the guy's sensitive about his big ears, we need to give him a new name, like Dumbo. But that doesn't quite get it. How about Barack Obama Hussein Odumbo. Well, if he's sensitive -- stop to think about this. This is a man being lauded as the savior of the country, a presidential candidate ready to be an[n]ointed, and he can't handle being teased about his big ears? He goes out to Maureen Dowd and says, I am putting you on notice? Is that a threat? I want to put you on notice? Can you imagine, like I said yesterday, let's say something about me -- I'm very sensitive about whatever it is, X, and the papers write about it and make fun of it. Can you imagine if I sought out Maureen Dowd or anybody and said, 'You know, I'm going to put you on notice. I've been teased about that ever since I was a kid, and I don't like it.' That would be the whole column the next day about how thin-skinned I am, how I can't take it, this and that, and I am a complainer and a whiner and I was trying to influence objective journalists and so forth. But instead, Mo Do says, 'We're just trying to toughen you up.' "

Maybe, just maybe, Obama was smiling when he said it.