What Next for Sheehan Saga?

"Obedient to the tradition that an American President must be covered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (including holidays) dozens of White House reporters are having to spend this sweltering August on the plains of central Texas as George Bush takes his customary extended summer vacation.

"Normally, hard news barely extends beyond barbecue fund raisers, a few minutely choreographed but content-free trips to 'meet ordinary Americans,' and the odd Presidential excursion to a little league baseball game. This year however manna has descended in the desert for the media mini-horde."

And yet, Cornwell concludes, "her 'camp-in' is anything but a hollow summer stunt. Never has the Iraq war been so unpopular. Most Americans now think the US-led invasion of 2003 was a mistake, and by a margin of almost two to one disapprove of Mr Bush's handling of it. Like Ms Sheehan, they want some or all of the 138,000 US troops in Iraq brought home, and soon."

Foreign Affairs Concerns

Holly Yeager writes in the Financial Times: "Growing public dissatisfaction with both the war in Iraq and US relations with the Muslim world could soon lead the American public to demand a change of course by the administration, according to a new poll of foreign policy attitudes.

"Nearly six in 10 Americans are worried that the US may not be meeting its goals in Iraq, and they hold the Bush administration responsible, says the survey. . . .

"That combination of strong public opinion and the belief that the government is responsible for addressing it makes the Iraq war 'the foreign policy issue that most clearly appears to have reached a tipping point', said Daniel Yankelovich, a pollster and chairman of Public Agenda, a nonprofit research group that conducted the poll."

Here are the group's findings.

The Blown Deadline

Peter Baker and Robin Wright write in The Washington Post: "The failure to draft a new Iraqi constitution by yesterday's deadline represents another blow to President Bush's attempts to show progress that would pave the way for U.S. troop withdrawals, some analysts said yesterday, but U.S. officials called it a temporary setback and hailed Iraqi leaders for staying at the negotiating table.

"Bush, who last week expressed confidence that the deadline would be met, issued a statement applauding 'the heroic efforts of Iraqi negotiators' as they continued to talk."

Here is the text of Bush's statement on the delay.

Here was Bush just last Thursday: "We have made it clear that we believe that constitution can be and should be agreed upon by August 15th. And so I'm operating on the assumption that it will be agreed upon by August the 15th."

Barry Schweid writes for the Associated Press: "The postponement appeared to be a rebuff to U.S. officials, who were pressing for a deal, if even an incomplete one, to maintain political momentum in face of a deadly insurgency. . . .