Mark Halperin

It really does speak to credibility.

And it worries Republicans in Congress, even if they're publicly supportive.

And then the other issue is public opinion is not rallied.

This is going to be hard.

There's going to be sacrifice involved, as there always is when there's a war.

And it's not just a sacrifice of the men and women in the military and their families.

It's going to be public sacrifice.

There already is.

If you buy gas, there's already sacrifice being asked for in order to achieve a bigger goal.

Understanding the bigger goal is vital.

And I have said, if you watch Caroline Levitt's briefings, there's no doubt that I think they've laid out why they're doing this.

To diminish the capacity of the Iranians to have terror networks, to potentially have nuclear weapons, to have missiles that can hit Israel and the United States and elsewhere, and their navy.

Now, they've also said it'd be nice if there was regime change.

But...

I don't think it's clear enough.

And you can tell it from the polls.

You can tell it from talking to people as I do on two-way.

They haven't been clear enough.

And now that we've got this binary conflict, this zero-sum conflict around the Strait of Hormuz, now we're into this question of, does the public want to have that fight?

What's that going to involve?