Obama Pulls Ahead; Deaths Mount in Iraq

As the first website below indicates, the past few days have brought Obama more or less even with Clinton in PA -- and double digit ahead nationally with Democrats. One anticipates that this race will soon be over and the big one will begin. I assume that without some major gaff, Obama should be able to beat McCain simply by treating him with respect as a person while demonstrating the nonsense of his positions, if you can really identify much in the way of a stable set of them with this changeable guy.

http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/

The sad news lies with the next website which shows an uptick in deaths and wounding in Iraq this month. The word that the al-Sadr is being goaded into ending his truce is not good news. One cannot conceive of a breakdown in his truce which will not entail a brutal series of slaughters of all involved and even more Iraqi disenchantment with our occupation of their country.

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

Iraqi Army Takes Last Basra Areas From Sadr Force
By JAMES GLANZ and ALISSA J. RUBIN
Despite the apparent concession of Basra, the cleric
Moktada al-Sadr threatened to declare "war until
liberation" if fighting against his Mahdi Army militia
continued.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/world/middleeast/20iraq.html?th&emc=th

As a personal footnote I would add that our Democratic family is more or less in accord on the policies, domestic and foreign, that need to be implemented by a new president, as are the Democratic candidates. We are, however, sharply divided along gender lines as to whether that president should be Clinton or Obama. We shall have some personal healing to do when the choice is resolved, as will Democrats at large who have been passionately backing one or another of the candidates.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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