Khalilzad needs to get Iraq's dominant Shiites to make concessions to the

[papau]

"Khalilzad needs to get Iraq's dominant Shiites to make concessions to the Sunnis and create a semblance of political peace."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/02/AR2006010200975.html

For Bush, a Test in the Midterms

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Tuesday, January 3, 2006; Page A17

Elections at midterm can be low-interest affairs or immensely important. This fall's congressional elections will be a big show with large consequences, because 2006 is looking a lot like the political years 1958, 1966 and 1978, all of which heralded major political transformations.<snip>
The 2006 elections will be a test of the audacious Karl Rove-George W. Bush plan to launch a long-term Republican Era. They foresee an alliance of corporate interests and religious conservatives, with the South as its home base. Business provides the money. Middle-class traditionalists furnish the troops.<snip>
(….Terri Schiavo/ end-of-life issues …. Social Security privatization proposal/ trust the free market enough to agree to cuts in their benefits….how we got into Iraq..undermined the president's reputation for trustworthiness ….doubts about Bush's capacity as an effective leader…more skepticism )…Note that each of these issues upsets the careful balance Rove had to achieve to get Bush to 50.8 percent in 2004. Three strikes and you're out: The social-issues right can't help Bush if its support drives away too many moderates. Pro-business economics can't help if it drives away many in the middle class. And the war on terrorism doesn't help if Bush is seen as managing it badly.<snip>
The obvious way for Rove to get his new era is for Bush to do a whole lot better in 2006 than he did in 2005. Failing that, Rove has to hope the Democrats will get in their own way and lose the chance to make this election a referendum on the course Bush has charted.