Goodwin's abrupt departure from the PBS show is a setback, but she can take comfort from the fact that U.S. News treated her as a legitimate pundit this week by quoting her prominently about Lyndon Johnson.
Our position is that it is not appropriate to contribute to the militarization of Syria, that there is opportunity still now for this process to result in the departure from power of Assad and a democratic transition to begin to take place.
However, in a statement before his departure on Thursday, Mr Vollebaek warned that the process of bringing peace would take time and that it would be difficult.
But for all the gains, the departure of the old days still litters the path forward with a surprising amount of debris that take away the comfortable fit that progress assumed.