A recent book by William and Philip Taubman on Robert McNamara brought home two truths for me that have parallels with America today: Beware the smartest man in the room. And, war never goes as planned.

McNamara, the former head of Ford Motor Co. and secretary of Defense under Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam War, was one of the “Whiz Kids” from World War II. He helped propel Ford into the modern era, then turned his statistical focus to reforming another fossilized bureaucracy, the Pentagon. In every meeting, McNamara had to prove he was the smartest person in the room, attacking anyone who disagreed with him with a blizzard of facts, figures and statistics.

President Donald Trump goes about it differently – he goes with his gut, but the outcome is the same. Trump, as a new MAGA baseball cap says, is "right about everything."

Which leads us to Trump’s war of choice against Iran. No one disputes that the regime in Iran is awful. The government massacres its own people. Iran is a major state sponsor of terrorism and has been for decades. But the reality is that Trump is ad-libbing the war with Iran from day to day. 

After launching his attack against Iran on Feb. 28, Trump told an audience, "We've won." Yet here we are, 10 weeks later, with the Strait of Hormuz still closed, the regime still in power, the national average price of gas approaching $5 a gallon and jet fuel, airline ticket prices and baggage fees on the rise.

Is this what Republicans are supposed to run on........

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