Bill Quick is ready to admit the rope-a-dope theory—that Dubya and Powell were playing a masterful game of global realpolitik despite all evidence to the contrary—was hopelessly optimistic.

I never believed it, but I can’t take very much pleasure in being right. For the past two months, as Bush has let the amazing clarity of purpose he achieved after 9/11 be increasingly obscured by the same old State Department dithering, we’ve been witnessing a slow-motion cave-in, a collapse that culminated in the depressing camel-and-pony show in Crawford, Texas. With all we know about the Saudi entity’s support for terrorism and extremist Islam around the world, the spectacle of our president inviting these corrupt oil ticks into his home and listening to their hateful views with respect … well, it’s a shame, and it’s a big mistake that is going to hurt us, and I can’t stop thinking “petrodollars.”