re: Fumbles and bad timing

Dear Mr. President. I hope to make this short and sweet. I think it's good that you've decided a new perspective in needed for the Secretary of Defense and I give my thanks and appreciation to Secretary Rumsfeld for his service.

However, Mr. President, I just feel the need to point out that in your press conference today, you said you talked to his nominated successor on Sunday about the job and had several conversations with Rumsfeld leading up to it. You know, if you had told America you were making a change and going to the bullpen BEFORE the election, we might have been able to stem the bleeding and hold on to half of Congress. Probably not. But considering how many elections were close, it may have been just enough to keep the Senate.

Now you may have felt it important to keep leadership of the war out of politics for the sake of the troops, and you would be correct in that. But I think it's pretty clear that somewhere, someone "misunderestimated."