I was just watching "Meet The Press" and Russert was dogging Madeleine Albright with questions about Kerry and Iraq. That's fair, right? However, watching this display drives home the very pertinent analogy to that of a baseball team's starting pitcher who is removed from the game in the top of the first inning after allowing eight earned runs. The relieving pitcher comes in to the game with moderate expectations as his job in this case is to do the best he can given the abysmal circumstances. Fans can only he hope he doesn't make an already horrible situation worse.

While obviously Kerry (the reliever) needs to answer questions about Iraq and have a plan, please, let us not forget who the starting pitcher (Bush) was that got us eight runs behind, i.e. who started this entire mess. Trust me (a baseball fan), as the analogous game progresses, fans would not forget for the rest of the game why their team was down eight runs from the get-go, placing appropriate, justified blame.

It's unfortunate that it appears as if the American public has quickly forgotten who the starting pitcher was that caused the top-of-the-first-inning debacle (the decision to invade Iraq); according to current polls, incredibly they favor leaving this starting pitcher in the game and not go to the bullpen.

If I were the team owner and had the American public as my baseball manager, I'd fire them.

P.S. below Madeleine offers a superb answer to Russert, who often seems as if he's straining to be objective (even he must realize the stupidity of his question once Albright answers). Note her McCain reference:

MR. RUSSERT: Knowing that Saddam Hussein does not have large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, Senator Kerry still said he would have voted to authorize war. Why?

MS. ALBRIGHT: Because what he said, as he explained right there, he wanted to give the authority to the president to get the international community together to put pressure on Saddam Hussein to live up to his obligations, accountability. And, in fact, as a result of that vote, President Bush was able to go to the United Nations and get support for getting the inspectors back in. What surprises me is how President Bush did not use that diplomatic victory in order to let the inspectors do their work and then go about trying to get international support for further action against Saddam Hussein. And that is what Senator Kerry voted for. He voted to give the authority--and let me just say this. When we were in office, we had people that voted for us to have authority, Senator McCain, for instance, and then was very critical in terms of the way that the war was being carried out. So giving authority, I think, is something that is appropriate. Giving a blank check is not, and Senator Kerry, in his floor statement, made very clear that he expected the president to go to the United Nations and rally international support.