I think that the handwriting is on the wall that we are going in a different direction in the fall, and I expect the president to lead it. ~Sen. Mitch McConnell

It is interesting how so many people routinely use “the handwriting on the wall” as a commonplace phrase for “this is something that has become really obvious, even to someone like Mitch McConnell.”  Few seem to recall or acknowledge the phrase’s origins in the Book of Daniel (my patron saint) or the prophecy of doom for Belshazzar and the Babylonians that goes along with the handwriting.  Consider the relevant verses (Dan. 5:25-29):

And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.

TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

PERES; Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. 

I cannot think of a more ominous phrase to use with respect to President Bush and his Iraq policy than to speak about handwriting being on the wall.  (Since the Kurds fancy themselves latter-day Medes, the prophecy matches up with the contemporary Iraqi scene pretty well, if we think of Iraq as Mr. Bush’s “kingdom.”)