John, the danger for Barack Obama is that the average voter, unlike the elites, doesn’t root for America to lose. They may in retrospect think the war’s benefits did not outweigh the costs and losses. But the notion that we should reject victory and prefer military defeat and diplomatic ruin is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way. Obama’s disdain for success may cheer the editors of the New York Times and professors at Harvard. But in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the rest of the heartland, it is going to sound like Obama is rooting for our defeat–and voters there won’t like it. For that very reason, I expect him to “walk back” his comments in some nebulous and incomprehensible fashion.