President Obama hit most of the right notes in his prime-time, Oval Office speech to the nation Tuesday regarding the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq.

There will be no Armistice Day established to commemorate the end of the Iraq War. No images of Times Square embraces or decorous surrender ceremonies aboard a U.S. Navy ship. Not even a “Mission Accomplished” declaration.

But supreme confidence, even backed up by a strong right arm, can't win every game or intimidate every foe. Roger Clemens may be about to find out that even he can't strike out the law of the land.

How to characterize New Orleans five years after Hurricane Katrina slammed the city and surrounding region?

Maybe it will take even more climate-related disasters and another big spike in oil prices to build public support for policy changes that are already long overdue. It will certainly take stronger, more vocal leadership, from politicians of all stripes.

Good news appears to be coming soon on one of the last remaining fronts of the Cold War, with signals coming out of Washington in the last couple weeks that President Obama may order some travel restrictions dropped for Americans wanting to visit Cuba.

One of the fascinating aspects of the Rod Blagojevich saga has been watching the national media’s interpretations of and reactions to the tribulations of the former governor.

A decent percentage of the nation's population is dipping into the goofy juice again. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, some 18 percent of Americans believe President Barack Obama is a Muslim, up significantly since his inauguration. Only 34 percent picked the correct answer, identifying the president as the Christian he has long insisted he is. A full 43 percent of Americans haven't a clue where he worships. Few modern presidents have spoken so openly about their private religious beliefs, or felt a need to.

What meaning to attach to the recall earlier this month of more than a half-billion chicken eggs being sold in grocery stores across America?

Few politicians have done less to earn their swagger than felonious former Gov. Rod Blagojevich has his.

Well, V-J Day, it is not. The Associated Press photo of two soldiers trotting toward Khabari Crossing at Iraq's border with Kuwait, among the last of the combat troops to leave the nation America invaded in 2003, doesn't quite rank up there with the iconic image of the sailor kissing the nurse in New York's Times Square in August 1945. If spontaneous street celebrations erupted there or in Peoria or anywhere, we missed them.

Now that Round 1 of the Rod Blagojevich trial has ended, a lingering question remains: What now?
Forget that prosecutors are vowing to retry him on some or all remaining counts. The higher priority is repairing the damage to our state’s credibility. What should be done to address the appalling lack of political leadership?

The old and jaded heart had skipped a beat there for a minute. Could it really be possible that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich had cast his spell on a 12-member jury as effectively as he had the Illinois electorate?

Sam Adam Jr. was, predictably, in high dudgeon Tuesday after a federal jury deadlocked on 23 of the 24 charges against his client, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. After the verdict, he bellowed "Is this worth (the cost of a retrial)?" Simply put, Mr. Adam: Yes, it is.

Rod Blagojevich is not innocent by any means. The jury in his corruption trial could not agree enough to convict him on 23 of the 24 counts he was charged with.

Memo to President Barack Obama: You need not express your opinion about everything, need not impose yourself into every situation. The latest example of Obama wading into an issue he'd have been wiser to steer clear of is the heated debate over construction of a Muslim community center/mosque two blocks from New York's Ground Zero.

Most of the cases where the Obama administration has fallen short of its promises can be attributed to the united and stubborn opposition of Republicans. But when it comes to Barack Obama's promise to preside over the most ethical and transparent administration in history, finger-pointing won't suffice - unless the president is looking in the mirror.

Besides reporting anemic job creation in the private sector, last last week's monthly federal jobs report noted another drag on the economy: the loss of thousands of jobs in the public sector. State and local governments cut 48,000 jobs in July, more than 100,000 in the last three months.

The nation seems infatuated - for now - with the story of Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who snapped Monday after an altercation with a passenger. After the plane had landed, he took control of its intercom system, launched a few choice words, grabbed a beer from the beverage cart and, with an "I've had it," skated down the aircraft's emergency evacuation chute and went home.

The struggle over same-sex marriage has mostly played out in state capitals, and the ruling last week by Judge Vaughn Walker directly applies only to California. But the frontal assault on marriage inequality waged by two of the nation's top lawyers occurred in federal court, and if the case makes it to the U.S. Supreme Court, the result could apply from sea to shining sea.