"Despite All That Has Passed..."

Thus sayeth Nabih Berri:

"Let us have a consensus presidential candidate and the opposition will drop its demand that a government in which it has larger representation be formed before the elections are held."

Count me skeptical that this is anything but a tactical retreat. The chances of a unity government being formed before the Presidential elections were already hovering around zero. By relinquishing a demand that clearly was not going to be met anyway, Berri appears magnanimous and boosts the chance of a pro-March 8 president without giving up anything tangible.

The key point of Berri's remarks is that the opposition is only relinquishing their demand for a national unity government for the next two months. After a consensus President is elected and the opposition is back to demanding a veto, it's going to be hard to see what March 14th gained from Berri's deal -- accept a less sympathetic president.

All that said, not all "consensus" candidates are created equal. If the opposition is willing to get behind someone acceptable to March 14 while temporarily dropping their demand for more ministers, more power to them. But let's not pretend the battle has been won. This settles nothing.