Front and center: Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama's decisions on troop levels, strategy and end game will be announced at West Point on Tuesday night.

No one's going to be 100 percent happy.

But no one can say he hasn't studied all his options.

With audio recordings from the White House and plenty of historic background, Bill Moyers on PBS the other night told the story of Lyndon Johnson's troop escalation in Vietnam in spite of the president's belief that the mission ultimately would fail.

No reason to believe that Obama feels the same way.

But it's hard to see how Afghanistan ends well.

Or ever ends at all.

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The TV ad campaign criticizing Mike Johanns for his vote against the motion to allow the Senate to proceed with debate on health care reform moved the bullseye.

Ads have been hammering Ben Nelson for months as the only member of Nebraska's congressional delegation who has not lined up in opposition to the evolving Democratic plan.

Now, Johanns is being targeted for voting to "stop the debate on health insurance reform from even taking place" in the Senate.

That vote serves the interests of the health insurance industry, not Nebraskans, the ads state.

Mark Fahleson has cried foul.

"This is a desperate attempt to stifle Sen. Johanns, and it won't work," the Republican state chairman said.

"Senator Mike Johanns is the one fighting for us," Fahleson said.

That argument aside, the ads help take some of the pressure off Nelson by diverting some of the fire.

Sponsors know the ads won't influence Johanns, but hope the message might have some impact on public opinion.

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Nelson was solemn and reflective during last week's dialogue with University of Nebraska law students about health insurance reform.

"There are those who don't trust us because they don't think we're honest," Nelson said in reflecting on the bitter attacks directed at the Senate, the Congress and Washington.

"There are those who don't trust us because they don't think we're competent," he said.

Nelson said his offices in Washington and Nebraska have been besieged by hundreds of daily phone calls about health care reform.

The incoming barrage spiked to 2,300 calls on the day before his cloture vote, eventually crashing his phone system.

The reality is the Senate must act to address "the growth in health care costs," Nelson said, or face the probability of costs doubling once again over the next eight years.

Some opponents of reform are "more interested in seeing Obama fail than legislation," he said.

Some readily voted for a Bush administration Medicare prescription drug bill that "wasn't even paid for," Nelson said.

In contrast, he said, "every effort is being made this time to pay for" proposed health insurance reform legislation.

During the coming Senate debate, Nelson said, some senators will offer "a lot of message amendments" whose only purpose is to frame 30-second TV attack ads to be used against senators in "your next re-election campaign."

Some of his colleagues have dramatically changed their tune about Senate filibusters and cloture now that they are in the minority, Nelson said.

"They were against obstructionism before they were for it," he said.

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Finishing up:

* Who's the undisputed winner of this TV ad barrage in Nebraska fueled by the uncertainty of one senator's vote? Nebraska TV stations, who must be grateful to Nelson for all that political ad revenue during a non-election year.

* On the guest list at President Obama's elaborate state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Singh was former Lincolnite Preeta Bansal, general counsel for the White House's Office of Management and Budget.

* Lots of Husker fans in Cincinnati, Boise and Fort Worth this week.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.