Mislead is the wrong term, it’s salesmanship. Presidents have agendas they want to push, and they focus on the most persuasive aspects of them to get things done. That’s fine, as long as there is no deception. Bush focused on the national security ramifications because the average citizen doesn’t really care about humanitarian causes on the other side of the world. I’ll be the first to criticize Bush on irresponsible spending, social conservative bullshit like abortion and gay marriage, or keeping Rumsfeld around for so long to fuck up the wars we’re in, but I still support going into Iraq. You’re right that we could (and should) have spent more effort getting more allies on board, but a lot of countries were never getting on board because they were happily abusing the Oil-For-Food program (like the spineless French, although I do like Sarkozy).
As for Hitchens, I quoted him because he’s the most intelligent and well-informed commentator on foreign policy that we have (as far as I know). I always enjoy his writing, even when I disagree with him.
Franken’s going to continue shamelessly fighting for a long time. It’s got to be embarrassing for him to be losing to Norm Coleman, while sharing a ballot with Obama, in the worst political climate for Republicans since 1932.