Things have to be pretty bad for Democrats. President Obama's speech last night on ending combat operations in Iraq has already turned into a Republican narrative about giving former President Bush the credit he deserves.

I give him plenty of credit.

He thrust the US into a disastrous, senseless war. Any astute high-school student with a head for history could have advised him against such a terrible decision.

I give Bush credit for lowering the bar for what it means to "win" the war in Iraq. We're leaving behind a country that has broken infrastructure, no government, and no end in sight to the violence.

And I give credit to both Democrats and Republicans for their willingness to send American soldiers into a war they sensed was unwinnable, and could only be financed by borrowing billions from China and Japan.

Credit should also go to the American public for blithely spending their days sipping lattes and watching "American Idol" while a war of such size and magnitude was carried on the backs of so few of us.

I suppose Obama did the right thing, suggesting that we collectively "turn the page," as he phrased it.

For some reason, I was reminded of former President Gerald Ford. He had that same look as he pardoned President Nixon. Look what it earned him: one term and a disdainful nation.

I fear the same could happen to Obama. The Republican propaganda machine has many Americans convinced he is a Muslim, solely to blame for an economy that's in shambles - and now, taking too much credit for ending a war he was against starting.

The war in Iraq was a George W. Bush folly abetted by America's sense of entitlement and colonialist creep.

It's a shameful and sorry chapter in American history.

Too bad most Americans haven't read it.