The Pre-Report Card.

Imagine: you are in school. The end of the term is coming. You've not always been a great student, but you have been trying hard. You think you've done well, but the actual grades are not in. You're waiting to hear how you've done.

Your siblings, concerned because your standing with your parents has been on shaky ground, yet they're often in even more trouble, are pre-broadcasting your grades (though they have no way of knowing them) to your parents. There is a reward being offered for the kid with the best grades, and they know you're trying harder than them and that your study habits are going to pay off. They're going to lose. "He's always playing games - he is okay playing PlayStation, but his grades? They suck. You should see how bad things are - teachers are always talking to him, he's always getting stopped in the hall. It's disgraceful.

The fact is that you have been studying, you haven't been playing games excessively, teachers are talking to you because they're telling you how well you're doing, and you're being stopped in the halls because people are impressed with you turning your life around.

The report card comes back. Three As, two B+s, and a B.

What happens? Do your parents question you, thinking you've gamed the system? Do your siblings get in trouble or are they believed over the teachers? How does everyone's position change on this result?

Very shortly now we will be getting General Petraeus' report on how things are going in Iraq. Democrats are pre-broadcasting that not only is the war lost, they are attempting to make it impossible to believe the Commander in Iraq. We must believe them and their news more than the actual people on the field whose job it is to assess risk and determine how we're doing. Yes, the General is going to be optimistic-bias, but he is going to be realistic and practical. No general wants to be recorded in history as having lost their war. They want to win it.

By contrast, the Democrat Party has based their whole foundation on the fact that President Bush is incompetent, a bungler, and a liar. They have done this by investing all their political future on the failure of the Iraq war. In short, they can't afford for us to win this war. If they are to gain more power in our government, we must lose.

What I see as most likely is that we are winning. That the "surge" has done exactly what it was supposed to, and that we are going to get very good news from General Petraeus' report. I may be wrong, and I am willing to take that advice and work with it, but I am going to wait for that advice - the source before making my decision. The only reason to pre-guess publicly and loudly is if you want to influence someone else.

It disgusts me that one entire political party in this country has not only bet everything they have against America, against the best among us at that, but is actively attempting to undermine us in order that they gain power politically.

I have little to no hope that President Bush will take the gloves off and battle like I so desperately wish he would, but soon we will elect a new President. A strong President. One who smokes big cigars and acts in movies. One who will put an end to flippy-wristed whiners in the legislative branch.

One can hope, anyway.

My message to President Bush:
Please, kick ass. If you refuse to do that, at the very least, just talk to us, tell us more often how things are going, so that there is no place for these horrid, undermining tactics.