Esteemed time-traveler and Washington media insider David Broder knows Democrats "have fallen into a peck of trouble" with the American electorate over the past two years. (Note: This is how people in the future--and also the distant past--describe the possibility of losing 70 House seats.) How can President Obama convince voters--even those hardliners a wee bit undone by his policies since taking office--to support his bid for a second term? By preparing to wage war in Iran, of course. It's so inevitable, Broder couldn't stop it if he wanted to, which he does, but can't, because of The Time Traveler's Vow:

Look back at FDR and the Great Depression. What finally resolved that economic crisis? World War II.

Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran's ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs. This will help him politically because the opposition party will be urging him on. And as tensions rise and we accelerate preparations for war, the economy will improve.

I am not suggesting, of course, that the president incite a war to get reelected. But the nation will rally around Obama because Iran is the greatest threat to the world in the young century. If he can confront this threat and contain Iran's nuclear ambitions, he will have made the world safer and may be regarded as one of the most successful presidents in history.

All this without reading a single Napoleon biography.

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Ray Gustini