President Barack Obama, in his second primetime address of his presidency, declared that it was time to turn a page in Iraq, and that the combat mission known as Operation Iraqi Freedom was now over. When Obama took over the war from George W. Bush, he was handed two milestones to meet, from an agreement signed by Bush and the Iraqis one month before Obama took office. The first was getting American combat troops out of Iraqi cities, which happened last summer, and the second was getting all American troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011. To these Obama added a third milestone -- withdrawing American forces down to 50,000 troops or less. His speech tonight was the announcement that he had achieved this self-imposed deadline.

Obama struck a rather humble tone in his remarks, which seemed just about right for the situation. He didn't go out of his way to either claim personal credit, or point the finger of blame. He even included President Bush, by name, in his remarks, after phoning him earlier today.

This was a fitting end for a war which divided the American public, in more ways than one. When the war began, the American people supported it at a rate of 70 percent or better. Just tonight, CBS released a poll which showed that, as of now, only 20 percent of the American public think "the war in Iraq was worth it." A whopping 79 percent of them think "it was not worth it." What this mostly shows is the fickle nature of American public opinion. Think about those numbers for a second. That's a "swing vote" of over half the country. In other words, less than half of Americans have held consistent views on the Iraq war since it began.

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President Obama will give an Oval Office address tomorrow night in primetime, on the subject of Iraq. This is a good idea, because it's a good use of the famed bully pulpit of the presidency, to highlight some good news. Speaking to the nation on television is a perk of office which can be quite effective in getting a message out to the American people. But there's another way to do this as well, and one that President Obama has all but ignored in the past year -- the presidential press conference. And it's about time we had another one.

The Obama team strategy has been to favor one-on-one press interviews over the formal setting of a press conference. The president, just last night, appeared on a major network in such a sit-down interview. But it's a mistake to barricade the president from press conferences, because they can also be quite effective at getting your message out. Press conferences are more of a duty than a perk to presidents, and apparently Obama has decided to just ignore doing this particular duty. This is a mistake. Obama really needs to get over his fear of press conferences, and start holding them on a regular basis.

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The battle looms. It is, in fact, right over a hill right in front of us. So, are Democrats girding their loins for the fight, and roaring their defiance at the opposition?

Um, well, not that I've noticed. Sigh. Instead, loins un-girded and roars muted to the level of squabbling jaybirds, Democrats are once again acting like Democrats.

The big fight this election season hasn't really dawned yet. And all the issues in the past will likely pale in comparison to the big fight that's just ahead of us. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (to his credit) set up this fight, right before the midterm election's homestretch. The big fight this year is going to be over extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest two percent of American workers, and to the top three percent of American small businesses. On the other side are, respectively, ninety-eight percent of American workers, and ninety-seven percent of American small businesses. Not bad odds, even for Democrats.

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About the Cartoonist | Reprint Policy

We're going to take a cartoon break today, because I have not just one but actually two cartoons waiting in the wings from C.W. Cunningham. I'm going to post them separately here, because the second one needs its own title. The first shows a different perspective of an earlier cartoon.

Enjoy!

-- Chris Weigant

About the Cartoonist | Reprint Policy

The "hostile takeover" of the Republican Party by the Tea Partiers continues apace. Except, of course, where it doesn't. Like much else about the entire Tea Party movement, it's hard to pin down exactly what is going on and what it all means. Which, of course, doesn't stop us pundits from trying! Ahem. But, other than making life interesting for the political chattering classes, the real question is now (as it has always been): will the Tea Partiers wind up being a net positive or a net negative for the Republican Party, especially when it comes to Senate races?

The answer, as with all things Tea Party, is (once again): "it's hard to be sure." We won't really know until after the midterm elections, and at that point so much "spin" will be on the airwaves one might (if one grew up in Kansas, for the sake of argument) be excused the immediate impulse to run for the tornado shelter in the backyard. In other words, even after the elections, the answer is going to depend on who is doing the answering.

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Realistically, that headline should read "Disappointment Poll Results," so I'll just start off by apologizing. Ahem.

Yesterday we ran a poll here on why, exactly, Obama has disappointed so many Lefties (and other people who voted for him). Today we present the results of this poll, which (so far) has garnered exactly 100 entries, a statistically nice round number.

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While the major fallout from Robert Gibbs' recent slap in the face to "the professional left" has died down a bit, a second round of examination seems to have begun -- one much more introspective and much less knee-jerk than the first round. But the problem seems to be that the people writing about it are mostly of the inside-the-Beltway punditry, meaning it lacks a certain breadth, I think.

This isn't to say such articles aren't valuable, and worth debate. Greg Sargent, who writes the political blog The Plum Line over at WashingtonPost.com, titled today's article: "Why is left so disappointed in Obama?" In it, Sargent discusses an article in Politico which attempts to answer this question, and comes up with his own take on things. Which immediately led me to thinking: "Well, why not ask a few Lefties what they think?"

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The media, quite obviously, has lost any capacity it once may have had for self-examination, to say nothing of its sense of irony. Every so often, this is proven beyond doubt by a single story. This, sadly, is one of those times.

Here's a quick quiz, to demonstrate what I'm talking about. Did you hear that "almost one-fifth" (actually eighteen percent) of Americans responded to a recent poll by saying that President Barack Obama is actually a Muslim? Most of us heard that news in the past twenty-four hours or so. This is because it falls into the category of "media catnip," which is properly defined as "a story which, in true feline form, causes the media to get really, really silly -- to the point of brainlessness."

OK, here's the quiz part. What percent of the people who think Obama is a Muslim learned this untruth from the following sources:

The media?

The internet?

If you don't know the answer to that, take a guess. Go ahead.

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There's a mini-tizzy in the media world today after a new poll was released which stated that eighteen percent of Americans think President Obama is a Muslim. "Golly gee! How could they think that?" is the overwhelming tone of most of this media tizziness. Only one article I've seen (so far), though, correctly points the finger where it belongs: at the media themselves.

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