BIDEN: BUSH'S FAILURES EMBOLDEN THE ENEMY

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, a Democratic candidate for president said it is the Bush administration's failed Iraq policies, not the anti-war movement at home, that is emboldening rogue militias in Iraq.

Biden's comments to the Associated Press were made to counter the latest Bush administration propoganda, which alleges the enemy in Iraq is becoming bolder because Americans have become weak-kneed about the war.

"It's not the American people or the U.S. Congress who are emboldening the enemy. It's the failed policy of this president - going to war without a strategy, going to war prematurely." -- Sen. Joe Biden

HAGEL PROFILE

Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican hopeful for the White House, has opposed Bush on the war from the outset. The Vietnam veteran spoke unscripted, and from the heart this week as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee debated a resolution opposing Bush's troop escalation. Hagel challenged every senator to take a vocal, visible stand one way or the other, reminding them that they are dealing with "real lives."

Newsweek has a profile of Hagel, and his rebel bid for the presidency, in this week's issue.

HUCKABEE (AGAIN) IS IN

Although it won't be officially, officially official until tomorrow when he files the papers, fomer Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announced today on Meet the Press he will be running for president.

(If you click on the above link you'll have to sit through a 30-second commercial and about one minute of NBC's self promotion before you get to Huckabee- just a warning).

Huckabee told NBC's Tim Russert he's running because America "needs positive, optimistic leadership to turn the country around, to see a revival of our national soul."

THERE'S THAT NAME AGAIN

While Huckabee is one of a half-dozen or more Republicans trying to convince the party's base that he is the one, true conservative running for the '08 nomination, it was Jeb Bush who turned on the right-wing set yesterday at the Conservative Summit in Washington.

Former head of the RNC Ed Gillespie told the Washington Post Bush has only one thing stopping him from being a top-notch candidate for the GOP nomination - his last name.

"If he were former two-term governor Jeb Smith, he might be in Des Moines today."

A BROKERED CONVENTION, OR TWO?

It's been quite some time since the political parties have going to their national conventions without knowing who they would be nominating for president when it was all said and done.

Most pundits think the front-loaded primary season we will see early next year will bring about a nominee earlier than ever before. But Newsweek's Jonathan Alter said the jammed primary calendar might actually prolong the nominating season and could result in a old-fashioned nominating convention. Alter said momentum can carry a dark horse through a truncated primary season.

"If the time period after an early primary win is short enough, momentum can often propel a candidate to victory in states where he has nothing else going. I remember landing in Atlanta with Gary Hart in 1984, a few days after he shocked Walter Mondale in New Hampshire. A Hart staffer met the plane and I asked him how big an operation they had in Georgia. "You're looking at it," he said. Hart nearly took Georgia anyway, and he won Ohio, Florida, California and other states on a shoestring. -- Jonathan Alter of Newsweek

Conversely, he says, gaps in the primary schedule work against underdogs who have built up momentum.

"The same thing goes for McCain in 2000. He thrashed George W. Bush in New Hampshire and seemed headed for the nomination. But 18 long days lay between New Hampshire and South Carolina, enough time for Bush to claw (and slime) his way back." -- Jonathan Alter of Newsweek