Blog Buzz: Iraq in Translation, Barack Obama's Magic Money Wand, and the New York Times's Favor to John McCain

Our daily look at stories and topics lighting up the Internets today:

Won in translation

First the Iraqi prime minister favored Barack Obama's plan, then didn't, and now he favors a different plan that is completely different but also the same as Obama's. Are we clear? And where does this leave McCain? With a surge surge and an insistence that he knows what the Iraqis want better than, well, the Iraqis do. At least one conservative doesn't think what the Iraqis want matters, while others argue that regardless of what the Iraqis want, Obama was still wrong. The best, umm, translation of the current McCain talking points comes from TNR's Jonathan Chait: "La la la la la la I can't hear you." In other news: How about the Iraq-Pakistan border? (Is McCain trying to say something by simply excising Iran from his map of the Middle East?)

Obama found the magic wand

Do you remember when a presidential campaign's entire budget was $25 million? Now it's one day's haul for the Obama juggernaut. There are skeptics of course. And shaken wannabe skeptics. And there are theories, some wacky, some not. And then there's the liberal excitement.

McCain and the New York Times: What's not fit to print?

So the paper of record is not interested in John McCain's plan for Iraq. Liberal media bias anyone? Talk about boons: This only helps McCain with his would-be base and with potential readers.

—Robert Schlesinger and Johannah Cornblatt