Reuters/Jim Young
–As Jay notes, Obama political arm Organizing for America is trying to take some credit for Bennet’s solid victory last night in Colorado. The message: Just because we couldn’t save Specter or clear the field for Lincoln and Bennet, the White House political operation is not ineffectual.
–Establishment …
–BP says the Deepwater Horizon well is sealed and the government is saying most of the oil is gone. That doesn’t mean you won’t be hearing about it on TV this fall:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn43pS3YEPY]
–Sharron Angle’s ads are still focused on Nevada’s abyssal …
–There are primaries in Michigan, Kansas and Missouri today. Among the marquee contests are Republican Reps. Todd Tihart and Jerry Moran clawing it out for a good shot at Sam Brownback’s Kansas Senate seat, GOP congressman Roy Blunt trying to fend off Tea Party-fueled challenger Chuck Purgason for Kit Bond’s open Senate seat, and of …
–Obama is set to deliver a speech on winding down the mission in Iraq at the Disabled American Veterans convention today in Atlanta.
–Lindsey Graham warns of a bipartisan “unholy alliance” against the war in Afghanistan.
–John Kerry says he wouldn’t support a request for more troops. He’s sounding Ted Kennedy-esque to …
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with members of the national security team in the Situation Room of the White House, July 29, 2010, to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
–President Obama is set to deliver a speech on education policy at the National Urban League’s 100th Anniversary Convention today. He will reportedly call for teacher pay to be pegged to performance, a serious bone of contention with unions.
–Harry Reid’s re-election campaign is getting defensive after Nevada lost out on federal …
–Democrats decide they really want to run against the Tea Party this year.
–A useful rundown of what made it into their energy bill. (Some assembly required, renewable energy standard not included.)
–Surface oil on the Gulf is dissipating quickly.
–A fascinating chart on the state of Afghanistan, then and now.
–David …
–Congressional leaders from both parties are meeting today with President Obama. There’s no official agenda, but they’ll probably discuss what needs to get done before the August recess.
–The House is poised for a vote on the war supplemental. The WikiLeaks doc dump may muddy the waters.
–The DISCLOSE Act, a campaign finance …
–The emerging consensus on the Wikileaks documents seems to be that while they include few shocking revelations, they paint a picture of a faltering mission in Afghanistan that will likely feed growing unease about the sustainability of the American effort there. John Kerry released the following statement as chairman of the Senate …
The Obama White House is furious this morning about the massive leak of military documents chronicling the unvarnished truth about the Afghanistan war. At the same time, though, there must be a certain sense of relief around the West Wing. When they first learned that the whistleblower website WikiLeaks had given the New York Times, …
The White House has reacted in full damage control mode to the release of classified documents detailing the U.S. military’s struggles in Afghanistan, which the New York Times calls “in many respects more grim than the official portrayal.”
To see the New York Times summary of the documents, click here. To see the Guardian’s coverage, …
The New York Times has the latest in the struggle between Iran’s right and far-right–between the so-called traditional conservative “principalists” and the populist-extremists led by the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad–which seems, finally, to be bubbling to the surface. This is a crucial conflict–these two groups, not the Green movement, are …
Amazing how David Petraeus can just crash through impasses and get his way. He’s even able to do get Hamid Karzai, who has boggled every other American who has dealt with him, to do something he doesn’t want to do–set up a system of local militias in rural Afghanistan. Karzai’s concerns are legitimate: the local militias would be more …