Josh Marshall on "We Were Right"

[scottxyz]

Nice article at TalkingPointsMemo:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_04_25.php#002886

Josh Marshall:

Some are now arguing that to point these things out is to engage in a sort of grand Monday morning quarterbacking, judging everything with the benefit of hindsight, the hollow prize reserved for those who don't get 'in the arena' and all that.

That doesn't add up by a longshot. This isn't some replay of the 'Best and the Brightest', a case where the most experienced minds and the best ideas took us off in some foolish direction. These goofs weren't just predictable but quite clearly, widely and volubly predicted (the Wolfowitz-Shinseki set-to was repeated endlessly across the board). What happened was the folks with their hands on the levers thought they knew better; only they were wrong.

Making that argument requires some rhetorical dexterity. And the opposition -- i.e., Kerry -- does have to show that they, or rather he, could do better. But given what we've seen, that really should not be that hard.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_04_25.php#002886

[LittleApple81]

1. I like Josh. He always points to the crux of the matter. n/t