Petreaus and the Welcome, Comforting Relief of Delusion for Conservatives

The Petraeus resignation is a personal loss for a man who has defined counterinsurgency for the U.S. in the modern age, and despite his somewhat rocky early tenure at the CIA, will constitute difficult shoes to fill.

Obama is left with the dilemma of having the best, most prepared candidate, Brennan, someone who he value having at his side for matters that extended beyond those of the CIA to other issues of National Security.

None the less, like all such matters, this matter will settle into a quiet resolution.

Conservatives, unfortunately, having perhaps a desperate need to latch onto some issue that will allow them to assuage and comfort their Presidential campaign loss with a barely interrupted dive back into conspiracy theorizing, leap into the strategy that has harmed them most--the break with reality, into the most factless, gleeful hatreds.

This is a shame, not only for the nation; for Petraeus, who has more than enough on his plate without such interminable fantasizing, and for Conservatives, who, the last election shows clearly, must begin to make the difficult move to reality--less satisfying I know, but with the virtue of being correct and non-diagnosable--if they are to gain traction with a nation of the increasingly sane, increasingly skeptical of these wild excursions, and, as we see, willing to leave them behind for a sounder base in facts and truth.