NP: Middlesborough v. West Ham United

Bill Maher is making me think again.

This time it was an exchange he had with Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, where he asked how on earth all the GOP presidential candidates (Ron Paul notwithstanding) can possibly run on their staunch support of the Iraq war.

Anyway, when you consider some of what we heard from General Petraeus and others this week about the prognosis for troop levels over the next year, something clicked. There are elements within the Pentagon advocating a drawdown of as much as 2/3 of American combat troops. Even Petraeus himself pointed to another decision point sometime in the spring, probably between March and July.

So, what will have already happened by some date between March and July? The bulk of the presidential primaries. This may be one of those theories that gives the White House and Karl Rove too much credit for being too clever, but this could very well be a case of the GOP trying to have its cake -- advocating the war to the base for the primaries -- and eating it, too, in being able to "listen to the generals on the ground" and advocate troop withdrawals for the general election.