The New Republic

I am sweating through my abaya as I drive to meet the sheik. It is a hot afternoon in Sana'a, and the sun beats down through an arid blue sky. Wispy pink and blue plastic bags that earlier held an afternoon's worth of the narcotic qat leaf float over the congested streets like kites, and children run up to cars paused at intersections, hawking everything from full flatware sets to the tiny perfume samples one might rip from an ad in a fashion magazine. READ MORE >>

In the spring of 2007, long before Sarah Palin became a feminist icon, before Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers reared their unreconstructed heads, before Hillary Clinton ever questioned his readiness to be president, Barack Obama's greatest nemesis was a 29-year-old paralegal named Joe Anthony. Anthony had attracted tens of thousands of fans to a MySpace page he'd set up for Obama—a testament to the legions of new voters the candidate was inspiring. But, back in Chicago, all Anthony's site inspired was indigestion. READ MORE >>

On his first day in office, President Barack Obama will head to the situation room for a video conference with his most important commander, General David Petraeus. If the conversation is chilly, it is not just the awkwardness of virtual chatting. Obama and Petraeus have a history. While Obama has called for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq, Petraeus oversaw the deployment of more than 30,000 additional troops. To win support from the left, Obama postured as a skeptic of the general's Iraq strategy during congressional hearings. READ MORE >>

Sitting in the Senate Foreign Services hearing with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, it's striking how much more downbeat it is than the hearings last September -- the press hasn't filled its reserved seats, Code Pink is muted, the Republican senators aren't wasting too much breath defending Petraeus or Bush, and even John Kerry's and Joe Biden's speeches lack passion. The whole hearing just doesn't feel very urgent. READ MORE >>

Today the presidential campaign will be largely defined by the testimony of Iraq commander David Petraeus. Is it just me or is his typical gravitas undermined by the sight of (the talented!) Dana Milbank just over his right shoulder as he testifies? READ MORE >>

I've been thinking about my last Spine taking on Tony Judt's silly comparison of David Petraeus with Douglas MacArthur. I've just started reading David Halberstam's The Coldest Winter whose dramatis personae includes -- even centers around- - MacArthur. MacArthur was a fantasist. He had ideas about the Asian mind, set opinions about what the Chinese would and would not do, illusions about American destiny and his role in it. READ MORE >>

Joe Klein makes the essential point about Bush and Petraeus in a much more cogent fashion than I did last week: READ MORE >>

Over lunch I was reading today's Wall Street Journal op-ed by John McCain and Joe Lieberman. It's titled, "Listening to Petraeus," and it begins: READ MORE >>

When James Fallows noted that war supporters had turned David Petraeus into the "New Jesus," Fallows, of course, didn't mean it literally. But maybe he should have. Here's mini-Hugh Hewitt Dean Barnett writing about Bill Kristol's triumphant return from Iraq: READ MORE >>

I agree with Andrew that it's disappointing, to say the least, that David Petraeus would go on right-wing partisan shill Hugh Hewitt's radio show. That said, after reading the transcript, I thought Petraeus acquitted himself fairly well. READ MORE >>