Ari Berman, based in Washington, DC, is a contributing writer for The Nation, a contributor to The Notion and a Puffin Foundation writing fellow at The Nation Institute.

Today's topics will include Congressional votes on Iraq, immigration compromise, and the significance of the leaked memo advising Hillary Clinton to skip campaigning rigorously in Iowa.

This Politickin with Ari Berman show includes

1/ A review of last night's second Democratic debate in New Hampshire

2/ The impact of Republican hopeful Fred Thompson on the '08 race

3/ The affect of John McCain's attacks on Republicans over the issue of immigration

Ari Berman is a contributing writer for The Nation, Puffin Foundation writing fellow at the Nation Institute, Fairfield Native and has appeared on C-Span, MSNBC, and FOX as a political analyst.

Ari was interviewed this past Thursday by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez on Democracy Now about his recent article for The Nation entitled "Hillary Inc", an expose of Hillary Clinton's corporate team of advisors.  read more »

Ari Berman discusses the latest happenings out of the nation's capitol with Planet Erstwild's James Moore.

Topics:
1. Iraq
--Korea-type presence
--casualty figures
2. Immigration
--bill collapsing in Senate/impact of conservative grassroots
mobilization
3. '08 race
--some updates on Ari's Nation article about Hillary which the New York Times and others picked up

Measures of progress or lack thereof in Iraq:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/opinion/10ohanlon.html?_r=1&oref=sloginnyt Story on union complaints about Mark Penn:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/05/1682/
Ari's follow-up blog:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=203527
Paul Krugman column:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/11/1798/
Nation edit on immigration:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070611/editors2  read more »

Today's discussion will cover "Sicko", the new Michael Moore film about healthcare which our Washington DC correspondent and Nation contributing writer Ari Berman saw over the weekend.

Other topics include Dennis Raimondi's upcoming interview with former
Congressman David Bonior who is now John Edwards' national campaign
manager and Barack Obama's big money take for the 2nd quarter as well
as his visit to Fairfield tomorrow.

Facilitating the discussion are Speaking Freely's Dennis Raimondi and Planet Erstwild's James Moore.

Today's show focuses on the Congressional testimony of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker regarding progress-or lack thereof--in Iraq.

Also discussed is a BBC/ABC survey of Iraqi sentiment towards the U.S. surge.

To reference Ari Berman's blog today from the Nation, click on: "Questioning Petraeus' Crediblity".

Titles of two BBC articles are a study in contrasts:

"U.S. Surge has Failed"

"U.S. Surge Plan in Iraq 'Working'"

The first, a survey of 2000 Iraqis in 450 neighborhoods from all 18 provinces, shows 70% expressing that security has deteriorated in the area of the surge, that conditions are worse for politcal dialogue, reconstruction and economic development. Only 29% think things will get better in the next year (compared to 64% two years ago). And forbodingly, nearly 60% of Iraqis see attacks on US-led forces as justified. (93% of Sunnis vs 50% of Shia.)

The second is the more upbeat assessment of General Petraeus. He informed Congress U.S. military objectives were "largely being met". Ambassador Crocker said he believed it was possible for the US to see its goals achieved in Iraq, that security was attainable, but it would not be achieved quickly,  read more »

Nation contributing writer Ari Berman made the trek up to Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's 30th Steak Fry yesterday with James Moore, which included speeches by six of the Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards and Joe Biden.

Hear what they have to say about the day's event which drew over 12,000
of the Democratic faithful, setting a record for attendance.

It's Politickin with Ari Berman Mondays at 1pm

[Rebroadcast Wednesdays at 7am]

More Iowa primary coverage.

The Nation contributing writer Ari Berman discusses the latest developments in the presidential primaries with Planet Erstwild's James Moore.

Ari's latest piece on Howard Dean will appear in The Nation on Thursday, Feb 27th.