Quickhits
(WaPo) Unsurprisingly, the US funded Arabic news service al-Hurra is failing. (One news anchor greeted the station's predominantly Muslim audience on Easter by declaring, "Jesus is risen today!")
(Wired) The Pentagon's "black budget" reaches an all time high.
And, (NYTimes) the news coverage of Iraq has fallen to almost nothing. (This year, the three nightly newscasts have shown a combined 181 total minutes of Iraq coverage.... CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq.)
(Wired) The Pentagon's "black budget" reaches an all time high.
And, (NYTimes) the news coverage of Iraq has fallen to almost nothing. (This year, the three nightly newscasts have shown a combined 181 total minutes of Iraq coverage.... CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq.)
posted by mikevotes at
7:47 AM
4 Comments:
Iraq is an enigmatic issues in this campaign. I think its and issue that people have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, they hate that we're in Iraq. On the other hand, opinions are all over the place as to what we should be doing about it....
Iraq is the one issue in which fear-baiting still works with the American public. At least to some degree. It's McCain's ONLY issue where he's not completely irrelevant.
By
-epm, at 9:14 AM
McCain has to try to prove that the US is winning. It's his only hope.
By
Anonymous, at 9:30 AM
EPM, I think your last statement is the kicker. It's the only argument McCain has.
.....
Anon, in theory, he could also try to sell the catastrophe of pulling out, but at this point, public opinion is pretty calcified.
It also pits McCain's need for stability againt those in his party and the administration who want to bomb Iran.
By
mikevotes, at 10:34 AM
Iraq is tricky for the Republicans.
The more they talk up the "progress", the more likely people are to think about withdrawing if everything is so great.
The surge, as it was originally premised, has failed completely. The militias were supposed to be disarmed, but instead they were co-opted and we have a short-term fix that makes the long-term shakier. I could go on, but the point is that the goal of the surge was never to reduce troop casualties. Instead, Bush has capitalised on that situation and claimed it was what he intended all along.
"Victory" in Iraq is slowly coming to a consensus to mean a stable Iraq with the government in control. Everything is pointing, however, to a stable Iraq with a pro-Iranian government in control.
Like the surge, "victory" is not turning out like it was originally sold, but that has not kept the Administration from bragging about it.
Like on most issues, the Republicans want us to be simultaneously terrified and confident. The press doesn't know which way to go. Scare or brag?
By
Todd Dugdale , at 10:06 PM
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