On fire!
When Pat sticks with Populism and stays out of the filthy, back-stabbing, sanctimonious, lying, cheating, duplicitous, hypocritical morass that is the American 2-Party system, he's UNSTOPPABLE.
Pat, you make more sense with ONE historical perspective than the entire "NewsRadio" crowd will in all their lifetimes combined. Please let your remaining ties to the volatile Nixon era go...there were no "winners" there...not Woodward, Bernstein nor anyone else...just 5 decades of lazy, selfishness with nothing to show for it but "chickens coming home to roost" as you've said so many times.
It's gone..I implore you: Let it go and focus thusly where you are "The King."

When did Pat become such a "bean-counter?"
Sure is easy to say "stay the course" when it's not you, nor your kid's caboose on the front line. And is that Casper Milktoast "well, either this or that, perpetual Devil's Advocate mumbo-jumbo "the best way the talking heads of the U.S. Beltway can think of to oversee and spend U.S. TAXPAYER money? How exactly can "the smartest people in America" be so completely indecisive when it comes to shipping my brothers and sisters off to die or be maimed and yet so hellfire & brimstone CERTAIN ensuring our civilization stays remotely civilized via "public" health care similar to that the military has enjoyed for decades?
It's the hallmark of leadership that makes the JUST decision REGARDLESS of the consequences. With no goal in sight in Afghanistan OTHER than to reenact either LBJ or the USSR (or both), perhaps Pat and his ilk could set aside their God-forsaken 2-party affiliations for a minute and provide some better advice than a well-heeled 17-year old could give.