The broken glass analogy

David Corn has a clever take on the meme about "What is Kerry's plan to do better in Iraq?" that seems to have taken over the media.

"I have two young daughters at home," I said to this Kerry aide. "If one takes a glass jar and throws it on the ground of their bedroom and smashes it into thousands of pieces, I don't point my finger at the other one and say, 'Okay, what's your plan for cleaning this up.'"

While it's silly to ask the question, when it's not being asked of Bush, there is an answer for it, even though the tongue-tied Kerry campaign seems to have trouble with it. As I wrote earlier, step 1 is to admit there is a problem. Step 2 is to put competent people in charge. Step 3 is to listen to your military commanders. Step 4 is to, as Kerry has been able to say, mend fences with our allies around the world, and make it clear to them that they do have an interest in helping us clean up, even if we did make the mess in the first place. Step 5 is to realize that elections are NOT a magic wand, and we need a plan for what to do after the elections, assuming they can be held in the first place.

I could go on, but I'm already so far ahead of Bush's "stay the course" nonsense that it feels like "piling on."