Paul hackett was also discussed yesterday @ 3:30 PM on CNN’s Inside Politics:

HENRY: John, speaking of the ballot, you’ve just came back from Ohio. You spent a couple of days out in the heartland trying to take a look at this special election in the House. Give us an idea of how these polls numbers and how the Iraq policy is playing outside the beltway.

KING: We went because it’s an interesting race. You have a special election in Ohio, second congressional district, because Ron Portman became the U.S. trade representative. It’s a Republican district. The Republican candidate will most likely win.

If she does win, Republicans will be running for the bunker. Trust me. But it’s an overwhelming Republican district. Because the Democratic candidate — you see him here — is Paul Hackett.

Now, what makes him unique? He’s been back from Iraq for less than three months. He’s a marine. He was in Fallujah. He was in Ramadi. He was involved at times in the training that the president will talk about in his speech tonight of the Iraqi forces.

He says the president has been overly optimistic in his assessments to the American people. Bill mentioned a credibility gap. Paul Hackett says he believes that goes back to “Mission Accomplished,” that more than a year and a half ago the president essentially said, “We’re almost done.” And it’s worse now, he said — he said it was worse when he left in March than it was a year ago.

Now, he makes an interesting point. He says, to train these troops right, you need to put them in bed 24/7 with the U.S. troops. He says the Pentagon doesn’t want to do that because it would put the U.S. troops at risk. Paul Hackett makes the case — he will probably lose this race, but he’s making the point at every stop that unless you change how we are training the Iraqi troops, this mission might never be done.

HENRY: Bill, look into your crystal ball. As John noted, obviously the president’s not going to be on the ballot in 2006, but a lot of House and Senate Republicans will be. Talk about this Iraq policy and how it may affect them.

SCHNEIDER: We live in a system of independent political entrepreneurs. They’re all in business for themselves. If the president’s not popular, and he’s losing popularity — his overall approval now is the lowest we’ve seen, 45 percent. If he’s not popular, members of his own party will go their own way, as a couple of them have begun to do, like Senator Hagel, whom I just mentioned in my piece.

They’ll all give themselves political cover, because they don’t want to be associated with an unpopular president. So you’re going to begin seeing people sort of stray off the path. That’s what the president’s trying to do tonight, rallying not just the public but his own party.

HENRY: Thank you, Bill Schneider, John King.