Setting the Iraq stage

For all of the slightly odd talk about this being the start of the campaign season, it is clear that candidates are setting their messages for the next 3 months, and the press is going to take things more seriously now. One of the things that is clear is that, Read more…

Hint to Romney: Baghdad is not Ames

Now, I don’t buy all this Yellow Elephant junk, but Mitt Romney doesn’t understand something fundamental: Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Wednesday defended his five sons’ decision not to enlist in the military, saying they’re showing their support for the country by "helping me get elected." Tooling around Iowa Read more…

Romney: Peace candidate

I have been saying for a while that Mitt Romney’s campaign wants to run away from Iraq as fast as possible. Well, he said it again, according to Green Mountain Politics. Except this time, he said that he wants to withdraw if Patreaus says that our plan is succeeding. That Read more…

McCain blogger conference call

Getting in at the tail end of McCain’s opening. He sounds very, very tired. Jennifer Rubin asks about Sens. Lugar and Warner re-authorizing the war under different conditions. McCain says that once you authorize a war, you either win the war or lose it. Says we can still win. James Read more…

Romney continues to back away from Iraq

From the AP: Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Thursday rejected the Bush administration’s vision of a decades-long U.S. troop presence in Iraq akin to South Korea and suggested a need for public benchmarks to gauge progress. "Our objective would not be a Korea-type setting with 25-50,000 troops on a Read more…

Romney soft-selling the war?

This from the NY Sun struck me in the coverage of the debate: Mayor Giuliani hit his stride early and performed well overall. His succinct and unequivocal response on a question about whether — given what we know now — invading Iraq was a mistake damaged Governor Romney, who gave Read more…