Someone's Getting Ready To Run

Appearing before New York's Asia Society yesterday, Virginia governor Mark Warner said that the U.S. needs to focus on winning the war in Iraq, not on setting a firm withdrawal date.

"This Democrat doesn't think we need to re-fight how we got into (the Iraq war). I think we need to focus more on how to finish it," Warner said.

"To set an arbitrary deadline or specific date is not appropriate," he said. "... It is incumbent on the president to set milestones for what he believes will be the conclusion."

I believe the president and the military have been setting milestones for ultimate victory since the war began. And I'm inclined to take Warner at his word, but the nature of politics dictates that the Virginia governor, who's interested in a presidential run in 2008, is now virtually forced to take the position he has considering the recent House vote that overwhelmingly rejected an immediate withdrawal from Iraq.