• You’ll take our completely involuntary drawdown and you’ll like it: “If the object is to bring troops home, you would think people would be happy with that, regardless of what the reason was,” said Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, “Take yes for an answer, in other words.” [NYT]
• Prayers do get answered: KEYES-OBAMA REMATCH! And it will be exactly as awesome as the first round:
KEYES: Janet Folger, who I was talking to, is one of the folks who has really been instrumental in putting [the Values Voter Debate] together.
She said to me, “Wow! I’m, you know — what do you want? If you want, I’ll build you a podium.” And I said, “What do you mean by that?”
She said, “We are building these podiums for candidates. If you want, I’ll build you a podium.”
And I was really taken aback at this, at first….And so I finally called her back and said, “Build me a podium.”
Did he think he’d have to provide his own? [Renew America]
• Obama has been reading Kos: “We are going to bring an end to this war and I will fight hard in the United States Senate to make sure we don’t pass any funding bill that does not have a deadline.” (Also: steak fry color.) [DMR]
• If things are getting better in Iraq, then why is the army hiring? “With the increased insurgent activity, unit supply personnel must continue to pull force protection along with convoy escort and patrol duties,” thus private contractors are needed “to work in combat-supply warehouses on U.S. bases throughout Iraq because half the soldiers who had been working in the warehouses were needed for patrols, combat and protection of U.S. forces.” [WP]
• Company run by Mitt Romney’s national security adviser ejected from Iraq over an incident in which “eight civilians were killed and 13 were wounded when security contractors believed to be working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad.” I suspect this is not the way Romney was planning on announcing his plan for withdrawal. [WSJ]
• Did you know that Hillary has a little-talked about interest in health care? It’s true! [WSJ]