Obama ISO VP Who Can Govern

Officials cite Iraqi obstructionism, mutual suspicion for thwarting mission

(NEWSER) - The United States' hulking $750 million Baghdad embassy is home to 16,000 staff and carries a $6 billion price tag annually—and it's about to get slashed in half in the wake of US troops' departure, reports the New York Times . It's quite the about-face for the State Department, which recently spent a year planning a buildup that has given it a diplomatic presence larger than any in the world. But it apparently neglected to clear its plan with Iraq: Embassy officials now blame Iraqi obstructionism for everything from delayed food supplies to hefty waits for American visas, and say that security concerns have left them largely cloistered within their four walls. More»

And Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin is still pretty scary: reactions

(NEWSER) - If you thought Julianne Moore's Sarah Palin was terrifying in the first Game Change teaser , wait until you see her in the full trailer, where she utters lines such as, "We have to win this thing. I so don’t want to go back to Alaska." Watch below, then read on for some reactions:

• This will clearly be "a Frankenstein-esque story about McCain’s staffers coming to regret the choice they made in bringing a little-known governor into the limelight," writes Jon Bershad at Mediaite . "The full trailer ... gives us even more famous actors getting their turn to stare in horror at the 'monster' they’ve created."

HBO debuts first teaser

(NEWSER) - For all of you who have spent the past nine months wondering how Julianne Moore’s Sarah Palin impersonation will stack up against Tina Fey’s , you finally have your answer. HBO debuted its first teaser trailer for Game Change, the film due in March that's based on the Mark Halperin-John Heilemann book about the 2008 presidential election. Neither Ed Harris as John McCain nor Woody Harrelson as top adviser Steve Schmidt sound much like their real-life counterparts, notes David Jackson in USA Today , but Moore’s Palin is spot-on: Numerous publications including People , New York , the Huffington Post , and Jezebel are fairly impressed. More»

David Hickman, 23, was last of some 4,500 to die

(NEWSER) - On Nov. 14, just a month before the final US troops left Iraq, a 23-year-old soldier lost his life to an improvised explosive device. David Emanuel Hickman was the last American to be killed in a war that cost some 4,500 Americans their lives, the AP reports. With the US mission over, his family and friends are remembering him as a jokester with the nickname "Zeus" (because, he playfully said, his physique was so impressive the gods would be envious); as an outside linebacker who was the linchpin of a defense so complicated his high school had to scrap it after he graduated because no other teen could figure it out; as someone with a goal of one day joining the Special Forces, and who, in the words of a friend, "didn’t sign up to get his life on track. He wanted to be a physically and mentally elite soldier." More»

110 armored vehicles carry 500 troops out of the combat zone

(NEWSER) - Early this morning, 110 armored trucks and vehicles carrying 500 soldiers set off on the five-hour drive from Iraq to Kuwait, down the highway once called Main Supply Route Tampa, pulling the last US troops out of Iraq, reports CNN . They hailed from Camp Adder, which just one month ago was home to 12,000 people. Even after Thursday's flag-casing ceremony , there were still 1,000 people here. Now Camp Adder, once home to coffee shops and an Italian restaurant, is officially in the hands of Iraq—and the nearly nine-year war is officially over. And as they crossed the border, troops cheered, pumped fists in the air, and gave each other chest bumps and bear hugs, reports the AP . "We're on top of the world!" one shouted. More»