by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math
... and neither will the not-reactionary governing coalition be (I hesitate to call any governing coalition that includes Ben Nelson and John Warner "liberal" or "progressive"). Matthew Yglesias hits the nail on the head.
As a bit of futher comment, ending the Iraq war will require cleaving cleave current Republican party into the "Conservative party", which you can have a spirited debate with, from the "Nihilist party", which doesn't understand basic budget arithmetic or the value of America's non-military power. Even if John Kerry had taken the White House in 2004, the underlying political dynamic would have been the same, as Mark Schmitt noted. Getting seven GOP senators to push for a debate on Iraq is the first step in what will be a long and arduous separation.
