Someone Tell the NYT About Right and Wrong

Frank Rich's OpEd column in the New York Times, Someone Tell the President the War Is Over, is the Times' most emailed article in the past 24 hours and ranks third in the past 7 days.

The article's penultimate sentence really annoys me:

Thus the president's claim on Thursday that "no decision has been made yet" about withdrawing troops from Iraq can be taken exactly as seriously as the vice president's preceding fantasy that the insurgency is in its "last throes." The country has already made the decision for Mr. Bush. We're outta there.

Which brings to mind quotes about leadership from the likes of Winston Churchill but, this being America, let's turn to another US President:

How far would Moses have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt? What would Jesus Christ have preached if he had taken a poll in the land of Israel? What would have happened to the Reformation if Martin Luther had taken a poll? It isn't polls or public opinion of the moment that counts. It's right and wrong and leadership.”

-- Harry Truman, 33rd President of the United States, 1945-53