Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

Mars rover moves robotic arm after storm shutdown. More here.

McCain, Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani have all had starring roles in the conventions that twice nominated Bush and Cheney, and none of them has shown any impulse to separate himself from his past testimonials to the sterling leadership of the embattled incumbents. Quite the contrary. Romney rarely misses an opportunity to salute the president's fortitude; Giuliani is as dismissive of Democratic efforts to shorten the war in Iraq as Bush is himself; and McCain, who has seen his fervent advocacy of the surge strategy undercut his standing with independents, never wavers.

The man in the wings, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, has said less on Iraq than the others, but he is eagerly courting the Bush-Cheney conservatives in the South, so his eventual positioning seems dictated by that strategy.

All of this suggests that this winter, one of these men may face an interesting dilemma. How do you reposition yourself after hugging Bush and Cheney for a solid year? What do you do to become suddenly the candidate of change?

-- DAVID BRODER

Hey, here’s a great idea!

Let’s take the ex-CEO of a floundering home improvement company, who got to walk away with a $210 million severance package despite years of bad management and languishing stock prices, and make him the new head of a floundering car company!

-- MARTIN

Sadly, Corporal (Pat) Tillman’s death comes with another unhappy legacy: a ludicrous change in the Army regulation that deals with reporting casualties. With this change, the Army now requires a formal, independent investigation into the death of every American in a hostile area.

If this provision had been in place when we began our operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, there would have been about 3,700 investigations by now. The American losses in Vietnam would have required more than 58,000 inquiries. And if the regulation had existed in World War II, we would have conducted 400,000 investigations, requiring perhaps as many investigating officers as we now have troops in Iraq.

In theory, the rule sounds commendable. Life is precious, and if one is cut short in combat then we owe the soldier and his family as full a report as possible. Having experienced more than enough combat, I understand this sentiment. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s the motivating force behind the revised regulation. In my view, the provision is there for one reason and one reason alone: to put in place a protocol to prevent commanders from lying about the cause of their soldiers’ deaths.

-- JACK JACOBS

Relations between the top United States general in Iraq and Nouri al-Maliki, the country's prime minister, are so bad that the Iraqi leader made a direct appeal for his removal to President George W Bush.

-- DAMIEN McELROY

If Barack Obama thought running against the former First Lady was hard, he now finds himself in a tougher contest with the old pro, Pervez Musharraf.

The President of Pakistan, beleaguered to the point of negotiating a power-sharing arrangement with his arch rival, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is hinting at declaring a state of emergency because of “internal and external threats” to his country.

Explaining the "external threats," his Minister of Information claims that Obama’s statement last week about going after Al Qaeda "has started alarm bells ringing and has upset (the) Pakistani public."

-- ROBERT STEIN

Smallpox was a great (foreign aid) success but not a fluke. Among other historical foreign aid successes are immunizations, oral rehydration therapy and the green revolution.

More broadly, when we pay a few hundred dollars for fistula surgery so that a teenage girl no longer will leak urine or feces for the rest of her life, that operation may not stimulate economic growth. But no one who sees such a girl’s happiness after surgery can doubt that such aid is effective, for it truly saves a human being.

-- NICHOLAS KRISTOFF

I don't know which is worse, Barry Bonds breaking the all-time home run record or a Roseanne Barr sex tape floating around.

-- TOM ELIA

WILLARD MATT ROMENY Jr. (voiceover)

"Saigon Des Moines, shit. I'm still only in Des Moines. Every time I think I'm going to wake up back in the jungle Starbucks. But I'm still in Des Moines. When I was home after my first tour, it was worse. I'd wake up and there'd be nothing ... I hardly said a word to my wife until I said yes to a divorce. When I was here I wanted to be there. When I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle Starbucks. I've been here a week now. Waiting for a mission, getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room I get weaker. And every minute Charlie squats in the bush that the Venti vanilla sugar-free latte waits on the shelf, it gets stronger. Each time I look around the walls move in a little tighter.

"Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission to go get a latte for my dad, and for my sins they gave me the opportunity. Brought it up to me like room service.

-- PUBLIUS

According to an alarming new Department of Defense report combining civilian, military, and calendric evidence, Iran may be as few as nine years away from the year 2016.

-- THE ONION