one of the reasons we re going to mosul, we want to get the isis leaders we think are staying in mow sell and we want to get them. before the announcement is over, they ve gone. whatever happened to the element of surprise? the element of surprise. what a group of losers we have. that was donald trump criticizing u.s. officials for their handling of the iraqi led offense into mosul to retake that city from isis. the refrain about the element of surprise is nothing new. you probably heard that from the republican nominee several times this cycle. he s been openly critical of the military operation despite forces on the ground making really important gains. yesterday, trump also said that he was convinced that t the it was launched for
outrageous types of questions, and then the next question from the reporter is why are you talking so much about social issues? isn t it fair for journalists to ask the senator about his own words. the situation in syria turns deadly for more correspondents trying to cover the violent uprising there. breaking news into cnn just minutes ago. word that the two western journalists, including an american, have been killed in syria. will the dangers there choke off the flow of news from syria? plus, the sniping has already started over the movie game change even before it airs on hbo. you can actually see russia from land here in alaska. my god. what have we done? it wasn t my fault. i wasn t properly prepped. are sarah palin s people justified in going ballistic? i m howard kurtz, and this is reliable sources. the campaign debate over rick santorum and the exit tent to which he should or should not be talking about religion and social issues has quickly morphed
finally, if you thought american debt was worthless, think again. i ll explain. but first, here s my take. the american economy seems to have picked up. the dow jones industrial average is hovering around 13,000, the highest since the financial crisis began in may 2008. the nasdaq is actually at its highest level since the technology bubble burst more than a decade ago. now, stock prices around everything, but data from the economy on the ground is also slowly getting better. jobless claims are down. housing starts are up. things do seem to be getting better, slowly, as i said, but surely. this is all good news for president obama because there is a very strong correlation between economic growth and a president s prospects for re-election. the unemployment numbers are still pretty high, but they are also falling. also, many models suggest that unemployment is not the crucial statistic to determine whether a president will win re-election. most people, after all, are employ