Pathetic. I’m watching the presser, and he keeps repeating how “I believe we must succeed” in Iraq, and “We have to succeed.”

So because we must succeed we will succeed; we can do anything we set our minds to - though it may, objectively, be unachievable - becuase this is America. And freedom. And terrorists and their ideology. As if all we need to do is keep repeating “I think I can, I think I can” as we ascend the hill, IEDs exploding all around us, civil war and genocide unfolding in the fields below.

The Little Engine That Could, as presented by The Little President Who Couldn’t.

Update: Sullivan nails it:

It also seems to me, alas, that when the president speaks spontaneously about the war, he reveals vast amounts of ignorance, denial and deception, self and otherwise. The patronizing soundbites stick in the craw at this point. His formulation that we do not know whether the war can succeed but that it nonetheless must succeed is about as disorienting a leadership call as I have heard. The rank condescension toward the American people is also staggering. Look, Mr President, most Americans aren’t as dim as you seem to be. Maybe it’s time you realized that.

He’s just out of his depth, I’m afraid. And others are sinking - and dying - as a consequence.