A confession: I am a complete political junkie. I love this stuff. The campaign trail, the candidates, their policies (yes, their policies), their foibles, their interaction with voters, the whole thing. So count me addicted.
Here's the first political ad of the 2007-08 presidential cycle, from Mitt Romney, who promises "STRONG. NEW. LEADERSHIP." More to come, from Romney and many others, in the days ahead. The two videos YouTube has to follow the Romney ad are "College Saga–Episode 1" and "Citizen Hero." On the "related video" sidebar is, among others, "ROMNEY HONORS VETERANS AT STATE HOUSE CEREMONY," submitted by one "KenMehlman." That person identifies himself as Chip and gives his age as 15. "I'm not really former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman. I am still a conservative Republican."
President Bush is confident that congressional Democrats won't be able to muster support for withdrawing from Iraq no matter what legislative gambit they use, according to White House officials.
AP - Prime Minister Tony Blair will announce on Wednesday a new timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, with 1,500 to return home in several weeks, British media reported.
AP - In a victory for President Bush, a divided federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Guantanamo Bay detainees cannot use the U.S. court system to challenge their indefinite imprisonment. A Supreme Court appeal was promised.
AP - A hidden bomb ripped through a tanker carrying chlorine gas Tuesday, killing nine people and filling hospital beds with more than 150 wheezing and frightened villagers after noxious plumes covered homes and schools north of Baghdad.
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair will order nearly half the nation's troops in Iraq home by the end of 2007, British news organizations report. The move comes as the U.S. is sending more troops into Iraq. The war has claimed more than 130 British lives, has never been popular with the British public and has cost Blair politically.
Army Secretary Francis Harvey blamed a failure of leadership for substandard conditions in a building that is part of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and vowed Tuesday to move quickly to fix the problem.