Weeks, it is known, are lifetimes in politics, but few packed as much life of all the wrong kind as these last weeks for Democrats, who saw Hillary Clinton break with President Obama on many key Middle East issues, and then saw Obama say that the plan to remove troops from Iraq (before this his proudly held signature issue) had not been his decision itself.

George W. Bush made him do it, or Iraq made him do it, or Bush and Iraq locked him into their policy. It was his admission his policy has been a failure, and at that moment, an era in politics closed.