“[W]hat Americans need now is leadership to get moving again — rather than more platitudes about hope, squabbling about race and gender, and endless rhetoric about who is really a maverick or a true conservative or the most liberal. What we need to know from our two presidential candidates are specifics about how to jumpstart America.

“So, how many more barrels of oil, refineries and megawatts will America produce — and when and how? How much debt will the next administration retire — and when and how. How and when will our schools return to knowledge-based rather than the present (and failing) therapeutic curriculum?

“Americans, in short, should be tired of hearing that we are a post-industrial, postmodern, post-anything society. Instead, we want to be known again as a can-do producer nation that sweats as much as it thinks. And the confident presidential candidate who can best assure us of that will surely win this election.”

— Victor Davis Hanson, Hoover Institution Senior Fellow, California University Professor Emeritus and Nationally Syndicated Columnist

[big fan of VDH, but that last may prove optimistic: the media has repeatedly proven it can sell TV watchers anything, pushed hard enough, and their promotion of Obama is breaking all records...]


Iraqis say they like Obama, divided on his policies
By Khaled al-Ansary and Mohammed Abbas

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is popular among Iraqis. In two dozen interviews across the country, many told Reuters a black man would understand their plight. [snip]

"I support Obama. I think he is the best for Iraq and for the world ... if McCain wins I will be devastated," said Mustafa Salah, an office worker in the southern city of Basra.

Hisham Fadhil in northern Kirkuk added: "He is much better than others because he is black and black people were tyrannized in America. I think he will feel our suffering."

[sample size of two dozen - "many" of which preferred Obama. no spin suspicions here...]

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ADVISORY: Baghdad story on views on Obama is withdrawn Reuters,
by Staff Original Article

"The BAGHDAD item headlined "Iraqis say they like Obama, divided on his policies" is withdrawn. The story was transmitted in error."

Comments: This is the entire transmission from Reuters editors.

[and means the first two 'big' stories {see following piece} re: Obama's international campaign tour are both factually inaccurate - will the corrections be aired on TV as the initial stories were?]


IRAQ: PM NOT ENDORSING OBAMA TIMEFRAME ON TROOP WITHDRAWAL

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has not endorsed any specific timeframe for possible U.S. troops withdrawals, a government spokesman said Sunday.

The statement by Ali al-Dabbagh came after an article was published by Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine which quoted al-Maliki as favoring the 16-month withdrawal window proposed by Barack Obama.

Al-Dabbagh said al-Maliki’s views were “misunderstood and mistranslated” by Der Spiegel and that the prime minister backs a general vision of pulling out U.S. combat forces based on talks with Washington “and in the light of the continuing positive developments on the ground.”

The al-Maliki comments that were published came ahead of Obama’s scheduled meeting with the leader. The report from the magazine gave Obama fuel in his argument that U.S. involvement in Iraq soon must draw to a close. [snip]

“Apparently, he’s confident enough that he won’t find any facts that might change his opinion or alter his strategy. Remarkable,” McCain said...

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