“IF SADDAM SNEEZES, THE DEMOCRATS WILL GET PNEUMONIA:” Dick Morris says that Gore’s speech was a dreadful political mistake.

Only in the past week have Democratic Party leaders come to grasp the magnitude of their error in challenging Bush on Iraq so close to the fall midterm elections. As the tracking polls have come in during the past 10 days, party leaders have realized that they have allowed Bush to change the subject from the economy and corporate greed to Iraq, with potentially lethal consequences for them in the congressional elections. But Gore didn’t get the message.

So was Daschle’s tantrum a mistake, too — or part of a recovery effort? My guess is that it was meant to be the latter, but will turn out to be the former. (Via Joanne Jacobs).

UPDATE: Here’s something suggesting that Morris is righter than he knows. Er, if that’s possible with him.