If the Downing Street Documents didn't make the important points that they do (Bush had decided on war, had decided to lie about WMD and 9/11, had actually started the war early) then citizens would not have forced them down the media's throat, yet what the media says the documents are about never quite gets it right:
SCHNEIDER: There is evidence in today's ABC News-"Washington Post" poll. For the first time, a majority of Americans, 52 percent, told that poll that the Bush administration, in their view, intentionally misled the public in making the case for war. Now, that could be the impact of the Downing Street Memo, which was the recently released British government document suggesting that the Bush administration manipulated the facts in order to make the case for war.
HENRY: John, you've covered this president for a long time. Democrats on Capitol Hill are agitating for an investigation of the Downing Street Memo. What do you think will be the impact of this memo?
JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't think you'll get an investigation because the Democrats are in the minority. What the memo has done is brought back to life -- as Bill just noted -- not only the debate about the insurgency.
And many Americans, if you travel the country, and many Democrats and Republicans will tell you when they go home, this is the question they get. This was not the war we were sold. What about being greeted as liberators? Never mind the weapons of mass destruction. That debate is pretty much gone.
But what the memo does is it gives new life, a new vehicle to have the whole debate about, was there a really a solid plan? Did the president ask the right questions? And did they plan for the day after the bombing stopped? And that is the big question now.
And the president's not on the ballot next year, but Republicans are just as nervous as Democrats, when you get into that very uncertain environment, because the president cannot say tonight, "The troops will be home on day x." In fact, he will say he cannot say that.