These numbers are downright astonishing

Take your time reading these poll results. Ponder their implications. Ask yourself how the situation has come to this.

A majority of Americans say their president lied to them to justify the war in Iraq.

A plurality of Americans say the United States cannot win the war.

A majority of Americans wants U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq immediately or within a year.

A majority of Americans wants Congress to block funding for additional troops in Iraq.

The breadth and depth of this antiwar sentiment among the citizenry suggests profound changes in the nation's political psyche, changes that even one as sagacious as The Rascal cannot fully grasp in every case.

Among the factors to consider in all of this is that, in turning against the war, the American public has swept aside a long-standing cultural-political bias in favor of any military adventure undertaken by any U.S. president. If you wrap the issue in the flag from the get-go, you've automatically got a majority on your side.

Conventional wisdom also has held -- at least until now -- that a large percentage of cultural conservatives can be counted on to resist antiwar impulses out of distaste for memories of (and the libertine legacy of) the sinful Sixties. You know -- hippies, drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll.

But I think the war against the Sixties is just about over. Come on. That decade ended 37 years ago. Some of the hippies from back then are on Medicare-paid walkers today. Besides, the bald lies on which the Iraq war was sold and the utter incompetence with which it's been prosecuted have softened some people's attitudes about those damned draft-card burners of way back when.

There are so many ways in which this aforementioned poll, conducted by one of the most reputable companies in the business, signals a turning point for America.