short attention span theatre:
Greg Sargent argues that "If Congress and the press had been more aggressive [before the election about the bogus aluminum tube story] it's perfectly possible that John Kerry would now be president." This is all very interesting but the fact that "U.S. officials have acknowledged differing opinions within the U.S. intelligence community about possible uses for the tubes -- with some experts contending that a more plausible explanation was that the aluminum was meant to build launch tubes for Iraq's artillery rockets" was public knowledge over 3 months before the 2003 SOTU and nobody questioned it then or accused the President of dishonesty concerning his pretext for military action (well, some people noticed :P). There wasn't really any excuse then for not calling Bush and Powell out on it, since numerous US and UN officials and organizations were on the public record arguing that the tubes were for ordinary rockets, not enrichment. I'll humbly suggest an alternative interpretation, to correct Greg Sargent: if Congress and the press had the collective attention span of a coked up MTV addled puberty striken teenager to have heckled down the aluminum tube story appropriately at the time it's about as perfectly possible the war would never have happened as John Kerry getting elected.
your turing test:
Oil for Nothing:US Holds On Humanitarian SuppliesIraq: 1997-2001
the good book and other cultural artifacts