Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President will deliver a speech from the Oval Office tonight on the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq. The headline in the print edition of today's Washington Post reads "Obama's speech on Iraq carries political pitfalls." Um, duh. The speech about ending the combat mission in Iraq was given once before in front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner.

This morning, the President will travel to Fort Bliss in Texas to meet with troops who have served in that combat mission in Iraq. Yesterday, he was at Walter Reed meeting with soldiers who were injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the political front, it took a couple days, but I think I've figured out Charlie Crist's position on same-sex marriage. It's something like this: He opposes a federal constitutional ban on same-sex marriage but supports his state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and civil unions. He supports civil unions at the federal level but supported the ban on civil unions at the state level. I know. It's confusing and doesn't make much sense. He's obfuscating. Maybe Charlie should just be honest about this whole issue.

And, Earl is still a category 4 with winds of 135 mph. Here's the three day track, via the National Hurricane Center: