Amanda Ripley’s cover story this week has nothing to do with the stated topic of this blog (except, maybe, in the metaphorical sense). But I want you to read it anyway.

John McCain’s proposal that he and Barack Obama take a joint trip to Iraq is one of the worst ideas I have heard in a long time. These kinds of trips–known as congressional delegations, or “codels”–tend to be big productions. The security and logistics that would be involved in arranging for two presidential contenders to [...]

The overwhelming vote in Iran’s parliament to elect Ali Larijani as Speaker seems a clear sign that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is out of favor with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. As the Times notes, Larijani is a less demonstrative–and less populist–conservative than Ahmadinejad and also a favorite of the Supreme Leader. A Bush administration spokesman took [...]