I’m kind of curious whether it makes sense for the Washington Post to refer to Mike O’Hanlon as a “Democratic defense analyst” anymore when his main agenda these days seems to be lashing out at Democrats for not forgetting that he’s gotten virtually everything wrong about Iraq. Here’s his snippet today in the Post …

Republicans were not alone in that response. Michael E. O’Hanlon, a Democratic defense analyst at the Brookings Institution who has been an outspoken supporter of the war in Iraq, said he could not believe that Obama would put such a definitive timeline into print before a trip to Iraq, where he is to consult with Iraqi leaders and U.S. commanders.

“To say you’re going to get out on a certain schedule — regardless of what the Iraqis do, regardless of what our enemies do, regardless of what is happening on the ground — is the height of absurdity,” said O’Hanlon, who described himself as “livid.” “I’m not going to go to the next level of invective and say he shouldn’t be president. I’ll leave that to someone else.”

A few more points. Can we knock down the idea that dog-n-pony shows in the country in question are really the be-all and end-all of major policy making? And with his record over the last seven years, can someone pull O’Hanlon’s license to use the word ‘absurd’ or any other derivative words.

With all the hullabaloo today about Barack Obama’s position on Iraq (and whether he’ll promise to withdraw from Iraq in 16 months, or set that as a goal, etc.) it would seem that McCain campaign has again successively deflected attention from the fact that McCain’s goal is to station American troops in Iraq permanently. His policy is not one of refusing to set arbitrary timelines or keeping in touch with commanders on the ground or members of the Iraqi government. Those are all obfuscations — a continuation of the one used by President Bush for five years. The choice is still stark — leave Iraq or stay in Iraq, and the very different foreign policy visions which inevitably grow from each decision. Any reporting that fails to confront this point is … a failure, and a cave to McCain who knows his position is deeply unpopular.

Chris Hayes weighs in on The Grand New Party: “It’s gonna be a long hard slog.”

Is everybody missing this? That McCain is now trying to catch up to Obama on Afghanistan? In fact, he’s now adopting Obama’s position.

Obama has been saying for almost a year that more troops are needed in Afghanistan. McCain has said that wasn’t the case, that Iraq was the central battleground in the war on terror. Moreover, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says that we need more troops in Afghanistan but we none are available unless we pull substantial numbers out of Iraq — which McCain is ruling out.

So let’s all say it out loud: McCain is now copying Obama’s position on Afghanistan.

And with troops that he doesn’t have since he’s against pulling any out of Iraq.

Video released by the attorney for a then-16-year-old Canadian detainee at Gitmo, of a portion of his 2003 interrogation there by the U.S. Canadian government:

Chilling in its ordinariness.

This isn’t getting much notice but it deserves your attention. The senate is currently debating the reauthorization of PEPFAR, the omnibus AIDS prevention and treatment legislation. This reauthorization also includes a repeal of a travel ban on people with HIV. Basically, people with HIV can’t visit the United States and they can’t become citizens if they’re here. Since the US doesn’t require HIV tests for foreign travelers, obviously, a lot of people can slip through unnoticed. But it’s a ban that affects a lot of people and one which we share with a handful of the world’s dictatorships and authoritarian regimes like Sudan, Russia, Libya and Saudi Arabia.

The law was the product of ignorance and prejudice when it was first enacted in 1993. And there’s no reason to keep it on the books now.

But apparently two senators — Sessions of Alabama and Vitter of Louisiana (who of course we know is a serial user of prostitutes, so maybe he should get tested himself) — have put holds on the legislation. So they need 60 votes to override their objection. The vote may come as soon as today. If you’re from those states it’s worth making your voices heard on this one. And if you’re not from Alabama or Louisiana, see whether your senators are willing to vote to override the hold and let us know what you hear.

Here I think is an example of news judgment within the DC bell jar.

As I noted below, the ‘news’ today, as in things that have happened today and are newsworthy, is the fact that John McCain has dropped his position on Afghanistan and embraced the one Obama has been pushing for the last year. (As a secondary matter, we can note that McCain doesn’t have the troops for his new position because they’re tied down in Iraq. But let’s not expect too much.)

And look at the headline at Mark Halperin’s The Page: “Obama Acknowledges “Shift in Emphasis” on Issues.”

And here’s Halperin’s gloss on McCain’s new Afghanistan strategy: McCain “highlights the success of the surge (and Obama’s opposition to it), says the troop increase strategies used in Iraq should also be applied to Afghanistan.”

It’s almost comical. It doesn’t fit the script so it didn’t happen.

Late Update: Okay, it’s 7:27 PM. And Halperin now has a headline noting that McCain is “supposedly adopting Obama’s position on troops in Afghanistan.” The key though is that the headline is prompted by an email the Obama campaign sent out to reporters at 6:41 PM (yeah, we got it too.) Did I mention it’s only “supposedly”?

Two speeches, two very different visions for the futures of America and Iraq. Barack Obama and John McCain delivered dueling speeches today on foreign policy and America’s future course in the Middle East. We bring you the highlights back-to-back in today’s episode of TPMtv …

High-res version at Veracifier.com.

Can we fight al Qaeda, which is in Pakistan, better by fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan? (Scratch chin.)

Stephen Payne, GOP lobbyist and Bush pal who only a few days ago could have arranged your visit with Vice President Cheney, gets canned by the Department of Homeland Security.