As we come ever closer to naming a Democratic nominee, I’m often reminded by various news articles that Barack Obama is the first ‘viable’ African-American candidate. Yet, I’m curious what makes a candidate viable (Is that shorthand for “Do they really think they have a chance”?) and wonder if Dick Gregory, Alan Keyes, Jesse Jackson, Cynthia McKinney, and the others I’ve not mentioned consider(ed) themselves impractical candidates.

Former US anti-terror czar Richard Clarke, who resigned in the first term of President George W. Bush’s administration, today said “the best thing that we could do to hit Al-Qaeda’s attractiveness to the Muslim world” is to “get out of Iraq“.