Democratic Family Feud

George Stephanopoulos took complete control over the Iowa Democratic Party debate this morning. Instead of having the candidates stress their differences between their party and the GOP, he had them looking inward. About twenty minutes of the debate featured a squabble over how many months it would take to pull the troops out of the Iraqi quagmire. On one hand was Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel who would use their magic wand and have the entire military back in the states within hours. Then there was Governor Richardson who promised an end date of December 31st. The rest of the candidates stressed the need to be more cautious and careful. Joe Biden called for a residual force to be there while Hillary talked about the large army and marine presence, the 100,000 plus civilian contractors, pet dogs, cats, etc. There is little doubt that all of the candidates want out but the difficulties are enormous and one has to wonder if Bush has not suceeded in locking our country in a semi-permanent takeover of the Middle East.