Joe Libberman has this glowing report of how things are going in Iraq. If you recall Joe was the VP nominee in 2000.

here are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraqi hands than before. All of that says the Iraqi economy is growing. And Sunni candidates are actively campaigning for seats in the National Assembly. People are working their way toward a functioning society and economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi and American military there to protect it.

Then there's this op/ed from Joe Biden; another Dem senator; he's been at the forefront of the Dem's campaign against Iraqi involvement, spelling out how horrible things are there, and how the administration needs to get it's act together.

Second, we must build Iraq's governing capacity and overhaul the reconstruction program. Iraq's ministries are barely functional. Sewage in the streets, unsafe drinking water and a lack of electricity are all too common. With 40 percent unemployment in Iraq, insurgents do not lack for fresh recruits.

Both of these can't be right. Many democrats have said recently that recent polls of Iraqis want the 'occupiers' gone, and are pessimistic about their future. Yet Sen. Libberman says this:

Here is an ironic finding I brought back from Iraq. While U.S. public opinion polls show serious declines in support for the war and increasing pessimism about how it will end, polls conducted by Iraqis for Iraqi universities show increasing optimism. Two-thirds say they are better off than they were under Saddam, and a resounding 82% are confident their lives in Iraq will be better a year from now than they are today. What a colossal mistake it would be for America's bipartisan political leadership to choose this moment in history to lose its will and, in the famous phrase, to seize defeat from the jaws of the coming victory.

Further, the title of the Libberman article was "Our Troops Must Stay". And the Biden article? "Down to the details on a U.S. pullout from Iraq". The two are not directly contradictory, but largely so. Libberman focuses on what is working in Iraq, and how effective the new strategy is. Biden, by and large, focuses on how we screwed up, and how there never was enough 'boots on the ground'. Newsflash, Biden, we don't have that much troops; we would be foolish to commit our entire military for a one year effort. It really takes the Iraqi military to clear Iraq of terrorists, and once towns are cleared, make sure they don't come back.

Libberman effectively communicated. Biden was all about finger pointing. I know who'd I vote for in the next election, and its not Biden. I think Joe Libberman was an impressive VP candidate, perhaps moreso that Gore. Biden? It's time for the Dems to do something constructive instead of play blame games.

What's terribly dissappointing to me is that the Dems don't have a good plan for Iraq, but finally after 3? years they start parroting the Bush admin's line on how to succeed in Iraq; gradual withdrawl in 06 and 07, and the 'clear, hold, and build' mantra of increasing security through training of Iraqi troops, coupled simulanteously with massive reconstruction efforts.