A disbelieving Jon Stewart channels Stanley McChrystal: “You know, I may be a four-star general and you may be a reporter for some hippie magazine, but I feel like I can trust you.” Watch.

I was out for most of the last three hours. So I only caught the breaking news today in pings on my iPhone. My initial sense is, honestly, I wasn’t sure he had it in him. And the, I think, inspired decision (politically clever and on policy and operational grounds too) to replace McChrystal with Petraeus hadn’t occurred to me at all. More soon.

It’s not a rush for the exits by an degree. But opposition to Health Care Reform continues to decline. Indeed, the last two polls show it with more support than opposition, though only by the thinnest of margins. Will the two lines cross?

See the video of President Obama’s announcement of Gen. McChrystal’s ouster. Video after the jump … Read More

Yesterday when I saw the full breadth of what was contained in the Rolling Stone article, my sense was that Obama had no choice but to fire McChrystal. At the same time, I wasn’t at all sure that he would. Indeed, if I’d have had to bet last night, I think I probably would have put my money on ‘no’. Everyone has discussed the obvious rationales of not wanting to disrupt the mission at a critical point and so forth. (The notion that McChrystal himself was somehow irreplaceable never struck me as a particularly serious concern) And this is why it seemed like such an impossible position President Obama had found himself in. But looking at it in advance and much more in retrospect, he simply had no choice. A commanding general’s open disagreement with the president is unacceptable. But mockery of the president, not just by the general but among his key staff, which goes to the atmosphere he’s created, is unpardonable.

If something like this went unchallenged Obama’s status as the ultimate commander of the American military would pass beneath a threshold level of credibility.

And yet, as I said a few moments ago, I’m not sure I thought he had it in him. But he did. I’ve learned something.

Sleeping with prostitutes, harassing staff, under indictment, getting freebies from money men and influence peddlers — all more or less compatible with remaining in office. Criticizing Glenn Beck? Say Goodbye. At least in South Carolina.

Fred Kaplan on Obama’s decision …

President Barack Obama has accomplished what many might have thought impossible just a few hours earlier. He has fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal, his combat commander in Afghanistan, in such a way that not only will the general go unmissed but his name will likely soon be forgotten. Obama’s decision to replace McChrystal with Gen. David Petraeus is a stroke of brilliance, an unassailable move, politically and strategically.

I agree.

The hits keep on coming for imprisoned former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. This time it’s 19 new fraud and tax evasion charges related to a private foundation Kilpatrick set up to help Detroit’s youth but which he allegedly looted to pay for yoga and golf lessons and personal travel. Justin Elliott has the full run-down.

A few days ago Mike Huckabee got a bit of negative press attention for referring to the “ick factor” as one reason to oppose gay marriage. Now he’s saying it’s a bum rap because the phrase “ick factor” is the standard phrase in the LGBT community.