(posted originally at Tacitus) Yes, we need a good "ION drive" at the top You can't kick people in the rear, whether in Congress or in the bureaucracy, and get the action you want if you've framed the goals in a way that's inconsistent with what you want them to do. It starts out with formulating realistic objectives, and "freedom on the march" and wiping out the bad guys are precisely NOT the driving priorities in Iraq. But truth-telling would actually focus on what the Bush Admin does, instead of what it says it does. And that's a pretty big problem for them. It would turn the campaign into what an incumbent usually has to face -- a grade card on past performance. Which in turn would become a choice of whether George gets to take 8th grade over again. Facts are facts, but perceptions are reality.