Also ...

While I am by no means a fan of Giuliani and find his explanation for dropping out of the Iraq Study Group less than persuasive, let me offer a counter-proposal: he recognized, as did a number of others who participated but didn't drop out (Cliff May, for one) that the foreign policy recommendations being offered were Darwin Award winners, particularly for a candidate who wanted to base his campaign on national security. I also suspect that he recognized that the attempt to link the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to resolving the situation in Iraq was not going to sell. However, he cannot offend the Washington luminaries who took part in the ISG, so he is forced to explain his lack of participation in another way.