Ana, on the McCain bus (it’s hard to blog from your Treo), sends this in: On the bus, McCain responded to John Boehner’s remark that American lives were a “small price” to pay for a victory in Iraq. Asked about it on the heels of his demanding that Democratic candidates “repudiate” the MoveOn.org Petreaus/Betray Us [...]

This is really good work by Matt Yglesias and Ilan Goldenberg, showing the march of ethnic cleansing–and the consequent diminution of violence–across the neighborhoods of Baghdad.

As Ana and others have been chronicling, John McCain has resurrected his campaign. He’s still struggling financially, but he’s stopped his slide in the polls and begun inching his way upward again. Building on a strong performance in the most recent GOP debate, McCain is riding his role as General Petraeus’ most ardent supporter straight [...]

In which the performances of Petraeus and Crocker are evaluated . A final note on all this. At the very end of the very last hearing, Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin asked General Petraeus for a clarification: When he returned to testify in–chuckle inserted here–six months, was he going to make recommendations about whether there [...]

are the subject of the cover story I wrote for this week’s dead-tree TIME: Bill is far from the only spouse rewriting the rules of the road in presidential politics. Of the 2008 candidates — and particularly among those in the top tier — more than a few are married to outspoken, opinionated, professional women [...]

Which version of Bush on Iraq will we get tonight? Will it be the standard-issue President who always sees that wrecked country, and the U.S. mission there, in various stages of progress, and who dismisses those who see otherwise as naysayers? Or will he adopt the tone he used in January of this year, when [...]

This from the Center for Responsive Politics: September 13, 2007 | Assessed favorably this week by the war’s lead general, the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq appears to be causing a surge of another sort—and one that’s not positive for President Bush or the Republican Party. Since the start of the Iraq war in [...]

• Retired general pronounces: “Up until this week, it was Rumsfeld’s war… Now, for better or worse, it’s Dave [Petraeus]‘s war.” Maybe. But maybe Boehner wouldn’t consider casualties a “small price” if he — and others — realized it’s our war. Some of us more than others. [WP] • Funny, this refers to representatives, not [...]

is in the race for John-Not-Related-To-Mark’s Senate seat. And the Democrats couldn’t be happier.