Who Is Losing What War in Iraq?

With his Iraq policy under intensified criticism and debate, President Bush said today the United States must persevere in Iraq, but that the Iraqis themselves must take more responsibility for their country.

Critics of the war should give Gen. David H. Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq, “a chance to come back and tell us whether his strategy’s working, and then we can work together on a way forward,” Mr. Bush told a friendly, business-oriented audience in Cleveland.

“In the meantime, the Iraqis have got to do more work,” Mr. Bush said, noting that he is about to give Congress a report on “some of the accomplishments and some of the shortfalls of their political process.”

President Bush has the case made for him in today’s American Thinker.

President Bush’s apt comparison of the present situation to the Revolutionary War evokes a vivid image of Nancy Pelosi and Harold Reid, as members of the Continental Congress, screaming that the war is lost and demanding that we surrender to the British immediately. Thank God that they weren’t around then or they might have changed the course of American history.

Harry Reid has declared, with the solemnity and finality of a baseball umpire, that we have “lost the war in Iraq.” Fortunately, our soldiers aren’t listening him and are still fighting gallantly and displaying an impressive maturity and sense of responsibility. But to make sure that everyone else sees through the inanity and mendacity of Reid’s pronouncement, let us go through a brief catechism together:

Which war are we talking about? We went to war against Saddam Hussein and his Baath party—nobody else. The last I heard, Saddam, his sons, and most of his chiefs were dead, his army dispersed, and a new government in place. I’d call that winning a war, wouldn’t you?

AP Falsely Blames McCain’s Downfall on Iraq

The AP is misreporting the downfall of John McCain. John McCain lost the remaining favor he had with any Republican voters when he vigorously supported the shamnesty bill over the course of the two months. In addition to his positions on McCain-Feingold, Federal judges, and other moderate causes, McCain long ago lost any hope at all of winning the republican base. You can read the whole article as it is laced with bias, but we have included the most egregious paragraph below.

“Considered the GOP front-runner just six months ago, the Arizona senator’s fortunes soured this year as he embraced President Bush’s troop increase for the Iraq war, an unpopular conflict with the public but one supported by most Republicans, and a bipartisan immigration bill that has divided the GOP. He also has fought to win over skeptical conservatives who make up the core of the party.”

Live Earth: No One Cared!

Rasmussen Reports confirms what we already knew: despite the wall-to-wall coverage on MSNBC and the faux hype generated by NBC, no one watched or cared about the “live earth” event that took place over this past weekend. A great deal of hatred and disinformation spewed forth from the mouth of so-called peace loving, free speech liberals.

The Live Earth concert promoted by former Vice President Al Gore received plenty of media coverage and hype, but most Americans tuned out. Just 22% said they followed news stories about the concert somewhat or very closely. Seventy-five percent (75%) did not follow coverage of the event.

By way of comparison, eight-in-ten voters routinely said they were following news coverage of the recent Senate debate over immigration. Fifty-four percent (54%) said they followed news coverage of the President’s decision to commute Scooter Libby’s sentence.

Skepticism about the participants may have been a factor in creating this low level of interest. Most Americans (52%) believe the performers take part in such events because it is good for their image. Only 24% say the celebrities really believe in the cause while another 24% are not sure. One rock star who apparently shared that view is Matt Bellamy of the band Muse. Earlier in the week, he jokingly referred to Live Earth as “private jets for climate change.”

Patti LuPone in Gypsy

On Sunday, Jesse Green wrote a wonderful article about Patti LuPone’s New York debut as Mama Rose in Gypsy this week. Read the whole article, it is wonderful. Even more wonderful would be the opportunity to see Patti sometime over the next three weeks.

That people haven’t generally been writing her roles, as they surely would have in an earlier era, is the defining problem in a career that doesn’t so much resemble a path as a Rorschach blot, read it how you wish. Though Ms. LuPone was trained at Juilliard to be a dramatic actress capable of many kinds of characters, her enormous success in “Evita” in 1979 permanently pegged her as a musical star just as musicals were starting their final descent into cultural irrelevance. Despite her once-in-a-generation pipes, she would never again originate a role in a new musical in New York.

In London, where she feels her gifts are better understood, she did create Fantine in “Les Misérables” and, less happily, Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard.” Famously replaced by Glenn Close when that show came to Broadway in 1994, she sued its composer-producer; the out-of-court settlement financed what she calls the “Andrew Lloyd Webber Memorial Pool” at a former home in Connecticut.

CNN Calls Out Michael Moore; Moore Throws a Fit

There is more at Hot Air.

Michael Moore threw a little hissy fit on CNN when Dr. Sanjay Gupta cited several flaws in the latest Moore myth, SiCKo. I’m sure that Moore could not believe that the crown jewel of liberal networks, CNN, dared to challenge his movie. According to Dr. Gupta, Moore “fudged the facts.” In middle America, we call that lying. Poor Michael, even CNN won’t endorse his radical movie. First Hillary and Barak abandon him, and now he can’t count on some in the drive-by media to carry his water.

Michael should stay off of TV; he gives a laughable performance.

Here is a portion of the transcript quoting Dr. Gupta:

GUPTA: Moore brings a group of patients, including 9/11 workers to Cuba, and marvels at their free treatment and quality of care. But hold on. That WHO list puts Cuba’s healthcare system even lower than the United States, coming in at number 39. Moore asserts that the American healthcare system spends $7,000 per person on health, whereas Cuba spends $25 per person.

Not true, but not too far off. The United States spends $6,096 a year per person versus $229 a year in Cuba. And astronomically more money doesn’t mean far better outcomes. In fact, Americans live just a little bit longer than Cubans on average. So Americans do pay more, but the United States also ranks highest in patient satisfaction.

And Americans have shorter wait times than everyone but Germans when seeking non-emergency elective procedures like hip replacement, cataract surgery or knee repair. That’s not something you’ll see in “Sicko” as Americans tell their tales of lack of coverage and suffocating red tape.

It’s true that the United States is the only country in the Western world without free universal access to health care. But you won’t find medical utopia elsewhere. The film is filled with content Canadians and Brits sitting in waiting rooms, confident care will come.

In Canada, you can be waiting for a long time. A survey of six industrialized nations found that only Canada was worse than the United States when it came to waiting for a doctor’s appointment for a medical problem.

PAUL KECKLEY, DELOITTE HEALTH CARE ANALYST: That’s the reality of those systems. There are quotas. There are planned wait times. The concept that care is free in France and Canada and Cuba, and it’s not. Those citizens pay for health services out of taxes. And as a proportion of their household income, it’s a significant number.

GUPTA: It’s true that the French pay higher taxes and so does nearly every country ahead of the United States on that list. But even higher taxes don’t give all the coverage everyone wants.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fifteen-to-20 percent of the population will purchase services outside the system of care run by the government.

GUPTA: So, there’s no perfect system anywhere. But no matter how much Moore fudged the facts — and he did fudge some facts — there’s one everyone agrees on. The system here should be far better. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.