Citing the steep decline in violence in Iraq since the troop surge began in 2007, a USA Today editorial today called "stubborn" Barack Obama on his reluctance to admit he was wrong in believing that the troop increase would not only fail, but that it would make the situation worse:

"Why then can't Obama bring himself to acknowledge the surge worked better than he and other skeptics, including this page, thought it would? What does that stubbornness say about the kind of president he'd be?

In recent comments, the Democratic presidential candidate has grudgingly conceded that the troops helped lessen the violence, but he has insisted that the surge was a dubious policy because it allowed the situation in Afghanistan to deteriorate and failed to produce political breakthroughs in Iraq. Even knowing the outcome, he told CBS News Tuesday, he still wouldn't have supported the idea.

That's hard to fathom. Even if you believe that the invasion of Iraq was a grievous error  —  and it was  —  the U.S. should still make every effort to leave behind a stable situation. Obama seems stuck in the first part of that thought process, repeatedly proclaiming that he was right to oppose the war and disparaging worthwhile efforts to fix the mess it created. Hence, his dismissal of the surge as "a tactical victory imposed upon a huge strategic blunder."

Keith Olbermann is being portrayed as a hypocrite for criticizing John McCain's recent reference to "Czechoslovakia", a country that ceased to exist in the early 90's, while transcripts have been unearthed showing that the angry pundit himself has cited the ghost country in the following occassions, as reported today by the "Olbermann Watch" website:

       * OLBERMANN [11/8/2005]: Let's play Oddball....To Prague in Czechoslovakia, where the country's newest reality show...

       * OLBERMANN [3/22/2004]: Here are Countdown's "Top 3 Newsmakers" of this day: No. 3: Three 14-year-old school boys in Czechoslovakia...

       * OLBERMANN [4/12/2004]: Let's play "Oddball." In Poland, they throw water on each other in the festival of Schvingus Gingus (ph); In Czechoslovakia, they celebrate with an Easter Birching...

Yes, I know Olbermann is not running for president, but...boy is he a dumb overpaid hypocrite.

See link: http://www.olbermannwatch.com/archives/2008/07/fact_czeching_t.php

I demand that Matt Drudge retire a news item that is his top story as I type this, linking to a National Enquirer piece claiming to have caught John Edwards meeting his mistress in an LA hotel.

I don't believe the allegations.

The National Enquirer has a very bad reputation when it comes to telling the truth, but it surprises me that Matt Drudge is linking to the story, which reads:

Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.

The married ex-senator from North Carolina - whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer -- met with his mistress, blonde divorcée Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21 - and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn't leave until early the next morning.

I do not believe this rumor, and I call for Edwards to sue any individual who is lying about this alleged event.

www.drudgereport.com
http://www.nationalenquirer.com/sen_john_edwards_caught_with_mistress_and_love_child_in_la_hotel/celebrity/65193

Liberals make the weirdest arguments and use the worst logic.
There is not one discussion on media bias in which one clueless liberal quips: "oh yeah? If the media is anti-McCain, why does he call it "my base"?

Of course, that clueless liberal won't tell you the last time McCain used this phrase to refer to the media, because he either doesn't remember, or his playing dumb.

Learn how to put together coherent arguments who make sense.

David Shipley, the New York Times' opinion editor who on Friday rejected John McCain's op-ed piece submitted the same day on the grounds that it did not contain plans for a timetable, worked as speechwriter and assistant to President Bill Clinton during his tenure, Howard Kurtz informs.

This background strengthens claims by the right that liberal bias played a role in the decision.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/style/columns/medianotes/

The newspaper that suggested in a thinly sourced piece that John McCain was screwing a female lobbyist, and that rejected McCain's recent op-ed because he wouldn't let the paper force him to write whatever they wanted, has yet again published a praise-laden piece about how much of a great commander Obama is because he took a field trip to Iraq. Read it and enjoy your orgasm:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/us/politics/22assess.html

A new Rasmussen poll suggests that people should beware of suppposing that frequent blogosphere visitors speak for most Democrats.

While many in fringe blogs such as the TPM election central comments section, Daily Kos and Democratic Underground (the kookiest of them all) constantly complain about the media conspiring to use their reporting to help boost McCain, only 21% of Democrats believe this notion. 37%--a plurality--believe the press has been unbiased, and here's the big stat: 27% believe the media are trying to help Obama, their own candidate. Remember, we are talking about Democrats.

And when it comes to the whole universe of those surveyed, 49% believe the media will try to help Obama, as opposed to 14% who believe the same about John McCain, and to 24% who believe reporters will be unbiased.

My fellow bloggers should continue to stick to their beliefs, but be assured that your view on many issues such as media bias is way outside the mainstream.

http://rasmussenreports.getmobile.com/site?t=iUDIcrYzH6XhclyqSs42gw

Am I the only one not surprised by the news that Nouri Al Maliki, the Iraqi PM minister, did not back Obama's withdrawal plan as reported by a German magazine, and uncritically repeated by the liberal media here in the U.S.?

Through Al Maliki's spokesman, we learn from CNN that,

his remarks "were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately."

Liberal blogs such as this one pretended to care about Al-Maliki has to say, but now they will likely claim that he has no say in the appropriate duration of our presence in Iraq.

Hypocrites.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/07/19/almaliki.obama/index.html?section=cnn_latest

Tonight the terrific Pullitzer-price winning Maureen Dowd of the NY Times warns Obama about the perils of his trip to Europe:

 Even if Obama is treated as a superstar by W.-weary Europeans, some Obama-wary Americans may wonder what he’s doing there, when they can’t pay for gas, when the dollar is the Euro’s chew toy, when Bud is going Belgian and when the Chrysler Building has Arab landlords.

...

Since he’s already fighting the perception that he’s an exotic outsider, he can’t be seen as too insidery with the Euro-crats. He doesn’t want a picture of him nibbling on a baguette to overtake the effete image of the Europhile John Kerry windsurfing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/opinion/20dowd.html?hp=&pagewanted=print