Following up on the ‘Surge’ and Obama, here’s some good analysis from Juan Cole.

Breaking: Matt Drudge doesn’t rule our world anymore.

With the Iraqis now walking back their walk-back, I think the translation issue is now moot. Here’s spokesman al-Dabbagh, the guy who put out the walk-back statement released by CentCom, speaking just after Maliki’s meeting with Obama. The new line. No need to call it Obama’s timetable but we want a timetable with the exact same period of time.

Even the networks can’t avoid it …

Late Update: It must be getting serious. As TPM Reader EL points out, even The Page can’t avoid it.

A new Public Policy Polling shows a slight, within-the-margin-of-error narrowing in Obama’s lead in Ohio, from 11 to 8 points.

We noted over the weekend that the Washington Post all but ignored the initial story of Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki announcing his support for Barack Obama’s 16 month withdrawal plan. Now that the Iraqi government’s de facto embrace of Obama’s timetable (or something very close to it) is undeniable, the Post is highlighting the claim that the Iraqis’ timetable is allegedly eight months longer than Obama’s.

See WaPo currently front page hed …

But is eight months even accurate? There appear to be contending translations of precisely what Iraqi government spokesman al-Dabbagh said, specifically whether he said during 2010 or by the end the year. The Times suggests that Reuters and the AP are the sources of the contending translations …

Mr. Obama described his talk with Mr. Maliki as “a wonderful visit,” but news agencies reported that a government spokesman said that they did not discuss the timing of any troop withdrawal. However, the spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, addressed the issue. According to Reuters, he said, “We cannot give any timetables or dates but the Iraqi government believes the end of 2010 is the appropriate time for the withdrawal.” The Associated Press quoted Mr. Dabbagh as saying, “We are hoping that in 2010 that combat troops will withdraw from Iraq,” but noting that any plans would have to change should violence rise.

Now, eight months seems a tad off regardless since presumably the clock on Obama’s 16 months would start counting on roughly Feb.1st 2009 — days after the inauguration of Bush’s successor. But set that aside for the moment.

In this clip from MSNBC, al-Dabbagh says “up to 2010.”

To be clear, precisely what al-Dabbagh said does seem a tad unclear at the moment. And I’d like more clarity on that question. But on the broader point, I’d hate to think the transparent agenda of the abysmal Post OpEd is bleeding over into the newsroom, whose news coverage, especially on foreign affairs, is consistently excellent.

This week at the Book Club, Bill Bishop is joining us to discuss The Big Sort: Why The Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart. He opens the discussion with a simple calculation: “In 1976, about a quarter of the voters lived in a county where either Jimmy Carter or Gerald Ford won by 20 percentage points or more. The number of people living in landslide communities increased steadily over the next seven presidential elections. And by 2004, in another very close vote, nearly half of all voters lived in one of these landslide communities.”

A new Rasmussen poll shows that Anchorage Mayor has opened up an 8-point lead on Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), 52-44. Here’s some of our interview with Begich from over the weekend at Netroots Nation:

Don’t miss the deadline.

TPM brings on a new class of interns each season. And we’re now taking applications for our Fall 2008 cycle. TPM interns are probably as intimately and rapidly involved in the preparation and production of news coverage as interns at any other news organization. And that ranges from work on the news section of the front page to research for our news blogs to video editing to bylined articles. Needless to say, this fall is going to have no shortage of political news. The application deadline is July 25th. To find out details for how to apply, click here.

It’s entirely possible that Condi Rice simply feels its unseemly or inappropriate for a sitting Secretary of State to say who she’s going to vote for for president. But her refusal to give an answer yesterday in response to Wolf Blitzer’s question was enough to get us wondering …

After nearly 13 years on the run, Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, was arrested this evening in a Belgrade suburb and turned over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Karadzic is under indictment for war crimes stemming from the 1995 massacre of some 7,000 people (estimates vary) in Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo.

A late report from Reuters:

It brought people out in the night onto the streets of Sarajevo, the city his troops shelled mercilessly during a 43-month siege, to celebrate the capture of the man charged with authorizing the slaughter of 11,000 of their fellow citizens.

“I called and woke up my whole family,” said Sarajevo resident Fadil Bico, as cars streamed through the streets honking horns and Bosnian state radio played excerpts of Karadzic’s wartime hate speeches.

Serbia has been eager to be reincorporated into the larger European community and eventually join the EU. Karadzic’s arrest is an important step in that direction and comes just two weeks after a pro-EU government came to power in Serbia.

When I was in Belgrade last month, the desire for a return to the community of nations was palpable among the Serbs I spoke with, although I was admittedly traveling in reform circles. “See, we’re not bad,” one eager Serb told me.