Media is simply taking Iraq off the table.

[madfloridian]

It's really just that simple. I have not paid attention to what the candidates are saying about Iraq lately, but I imagine none of them is eager for withdrawal.

Just say things are better, present nothing to the contrary, and it becomes reality. It's amazing how it happens.

As Democrats See Security Gains in Iraq, Tone Shifts

As violence declines in Baghdad, the leading Democratic presidential candidates are undertaking a new and challenging balancing act on Iraq: acknowledging that success, trying to shift the focus to the lack of political progress there, and highlighting more domestic concerns like health care and the economy.

Advisers to Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama say that the candidates have watched security conditions improve after the troop escalation in Iraq and concluded that it would be folly not to acknowledge those gains. At the same time, they are arguing that American casualties are still too high, that a quick withdrawal is the only way to end the war and that the so-called surge in additional troops has not paid off in political progress in Iraq.

But the changing situation suggests for the first time that the politics of the war could shift in the general election next year, particularly if the gains continue. While the Democratic candidates are continuing to assail the war — a popular position with many of the party’s primary voters — they run the risk that Republicans will use those critiques to attack the party’s nominee in the election as defeatist and lacking faith in the American military.

If security continues to improve, President Bush could become less of a drag on his party, too, and Republicans may have an easier time zeroing in on other issues, such as how the Democrats have proposed raising taxes in difficult economic times.

Isn't that amazing? The New York Times, that "liberal" old lady of news....is declaring Iraq just fine now and declaring Bush may be the winner after all.

I guess it is all over but the shouting of the anti-war activists who saw what our country did and find it sickening indeed. And if we don't remember, if we don't keep it front and center, it will disappear. The fact that we invaded a country that was no threat to us, the fact that we may be ready to do the same to another country....

....the fact that we bombed civilian infrastructure, hung their leader, killed his sons and publicly displayed their bodies...that we killed hundreds of thousands of the civilians...that we are openly using torture on their citizens...

.....it will all disappear from the news if we let it.

[sandnsea]

1. Hillary doesn't support a quick withdrawal

When I see one lie, see who it benefits, I put the rest in context. Hillary doesn't want to talk about Iraq, so Iraq is out of the news. That's been the problem since day one. She supports the goals of the war, US dominance of the ME and the ME oil.

[peacebird]

2. M$M is helping the repukes (and the hawkish Dems) by taking Iraq off the news radar

[madfloridian]

3. Boston Globe weighs in: Let's hear it for good news from Iraq

Let's hear it for good news from Iraq

"In a story titled "Baghdad Comes Alive," Rod Nordland reports in the current Newsweek on the heartening transformation underway in the Iraqi capital:

"Returning to Baghdad after an absence of four months," he writes, "I can actually say that things do seem to have gotten better, and in ways that may even be durable . . . There hasn't been a successful suicide car bombing in Baghdad in five weeks . . . Al Qaeda in Iraq is starting to look like a spent force, especially in Baghdad."

The signs of life, Nordland acknowledges "grudgingly" - his word - are undeniable.

"Emerging from our bunkers into the Red Zone, I see the results everywhere. Throughout Baghdad, shops and street markets are open late again, taking advantage of the fine November weather. Parks are crowded with strollers, and kids play soccer on the streets. Traffic has resumed its customary epic snarl. . . . The Shorja bazaar in old Baghdad, hit by at least six different car bombs killing hundreds in the last year, is again crowded with people among the narrow tented stalls. On nearby Al-Rasheed Street, the famous booksellers are back in business . . . People are buying alcohol again - as they always had in Baghdad, until religious extremists forced many neighborhood liquor shops to close."

Newsweek's isn't the only big media voice bringing tidings of comfort and joy from the Iraqi theatre.

On Tuesday, The New York Times led its front page with a good-news headline - "Baghdad Starts to Exhale as Security Improves" - and a large photo of an Iraqi bride and groom, bedecked in wedding finery and accompanied by a band. Below that: a picture of smiling diners at Al Faris, a restaurant on the Tigris riverbank that is booming once again. Inside, across four columns, another photo showed an outdoor foosball game in Baghdad's Haifa Street, once dubbed the "Street of Fear" because it was the scene of so many lethal sectarian attacks."

[AtomicKitten]

4. Worse, the MSM is touting WH talking points on Iraq.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

[blues90]

5. You are right , It will all just evaporate by design

All it takes is a TV set and those in control can take the worst and present something new and shiny and it's all down the memory hole .

It don't mean nothin , nothin at all so we are told .

It's the same thing when JFK was murdered , while we were grieving they powers at be were planning their next move . They handed us their well laid out warren report and the funeral services and closed the door .