Sanger Weighs In On How "Life Works"

Instead of a fish tied to a cinderblock this weekend, it looked like we might have one tied to a balloon. The New York Times reported on the front of its Saturday edition that the administration was considering a 50 percent reduction in combat troops by next spring in order to take the focus away from a phased timeline for withdrawal.

The idea was sourced to “senior administration officials in the midst of the internal debate” and could have been either a classic trial balloon or the work of people in the debate hoping early press coverage would help kill it or push it forward.