Matt Stoller at MyDD has a comment that I think I largely agree with:

From the New York Times, on the escalation in Iraq:

“We know this policy is going forward,” said Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York. “We know the troops are moving. We know that we’re not likely to stop this escalation. But we are going to do everything we can to send a message to our government and the Iraqi government that they had better change, because the enemy we are confronting is adaptable.”

That's what Hillary Clinton is saying on Iraq. And it's pathetic. Welcome to the Kerry campaign, redux, 2008 style.

Contrast this mushy untrustworthy glop to what we heard with Jim Webb's SOTU response, and what a clear-eyed Democratic message looks like. Webb's speech centered on two themes - inequality and Iraq. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the speech worked, since Webb and a whole host of Democrats just won a big election based on that message. If we had a nominee who carried this winning theme forward, 2008 would probably be the reverse Reagan for us, the consolidating roll-up of the electoral map after the 2006 Congressional realignment that parallels the 1980 electoral follow-up to 1978, which delivered us prop 13 in California (among other reactionary electoral victories). A progressive populist message would work in bringing us huge national majorities and a mandate for massive change. Still, if this is so obvious, why are we only hearing populism, or even a pale attempt at populism, from John Edwards (and Tom Vilsack)?

Now, on AirAmerica Radio, Al Franken has been pushing merits of the "good cop, bad cop" theory as a means to force al-Maliki to toe the line, and I don't think he's entirely wrong. The theory says that Bush is the "good cop" telling al-Maliki that we'll stick with him if he's good. The Dems are the "bad cop" that make the threat to pull the carpet out from under him a real threat. I think I agree that the Dems' efforts here may have a salutory effect on al-Maliki, and that seems to be what Hillary is saying. But, they will only have a salutory effect if they have some clout behind them. With Hillary essentially handing the game to Bush, the "bad cop" morphs into a paper tiger.