D.C. Quagmire?

Is it possible for both parties to lose?

David Brooks asks,

Bob, what do you think about the state of our political parties?

Is it possible for both parties to lose at the same time?

Bob Herbert answers,

I think both parties are misreading the public’s mood on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Whatever individual polls might say, most ordinary Americans are fed up with those conflicts and have no stomach for the rising casualties that would accompany an expansion of the fighting in Afghanistan. The conservative trend you mentioned is, I think, a manifestation of the desire to wind down the extraordinary drama of the past several years and begin to focus, in a prudent, common-sense way, on the myriad problems facing us here at home.

Yes, a lot more was said in this dialogue, but this is what I come away with.