Last week, the LA Times wrote:

When they began publicizing the benchmarks a year ago, administration officials saw them as realistic goals that would prod the Iraqi government toward reconciliation....Yet now, with the major goals still out of reach, the administration is playing down their importance. With an interim report on the U.S. effort due out today, administration officials instead are emphasizing other goals....

Bill Maher has said repeatedly that these guys have yet to get something right about this war, so why continue to believe anything they have to say? This is just one more example of them getting it wrong: they go with benchmarks -- oops, wrong, bad idea, so they scramble again, now looking to play down their importance. Same old, same old.