The GOP has always known how to throw a punch at their convention. Democrats do it sometimes, but we haven’t had a William Jennings Bryan or Harry Truman in a long time.

Two years ago, Anbar Province was the most lethal place for the Americans in Iraq, with a marine or a soldier dying here nearly every day. The provincial capital, Ramadi, was a moonscape of rubble and ruins. Islamic extremists controlled large pieces of territory, with some so ferocious in their personal views that they did not even allow the sale of bread.

On Monday, following a parade on a freshly paved street, American commanders formally returned responsibility for keeping order in Anbar Province, once the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, to the Iraqi Army and police force. The ceremony capped one of the starkest turnabouts in the country since the war began five and a half years ago. In the past two years, the number of insurgent attacks against Iraqis and Americans in Anbar Province has dropped by more than 90 percent. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a homegrown Sunni Arab extremist group that American intelligence agencies have concluded is led by foreigners, has been severely degraded, if not crushed altogether. Since February, as the situation improved, American commanders have cut the number of marines and soldiers here by more than a third, they said.

The transfer of authority codified a transformation that Iraqi and American officers say has been in effect since April: the Iraqi Army and the police operate independently and retain primary responsibility for battling the insurgency and crime in Anbar. The Americans, who had long done the bulk of the fighting, have stepped into a backup role. With the transfer on Monday, Iraq now bears the primary responsibility for maintaining security in 11 of its 18 provinces.

Second:

This nearly deserted city appeared to have escaped threats of full-scale devastation on Monday when Hurricane Gustav came ashore 70 miles to the southwest, bearing winds and rain far less formidable than earlier forecast.

The storm smashed through the bayou country of rural Louisiana, raising fears of widespread coastal erosion and damage to fishing villages that state officials were unable to confirm Monday evening. But before making landfall, it was downgraded from a Category 3 hurricane to Category 2 when its winds slowed to 110 miles per hour, from 115 m.p.h., and state officials said they believed that their worst fears had not been realized.

Hurricane Gustav weakened to a tropical storm late Monday as it moved over central Louisiana.

I, for one, am proud of our soldiers and strategy in Iraq and the national response to Hurricane Gustav, though I realize that we had a lot of luck in New Orleans this time around. Incidentally, a friend of mine refused to “abandon the city” like he did during Hurricane Katrina and therefore stayed for this storm. I think he’s okay, and I’m glad that the city didn’t “get it” quite like last time around. Let’s just hope it holds.

Despite a campaign that attacked corporate and special interest lobbyists as evil and banned their money and participation, Sen. Barack Obama has done little, if anything, about their pervasive, free-spending presence at the Democratic convention in Denver, ethics watchdog groups say.

“I think he could have sent a signal to say I want this tamped down,” said Ellen Miller of the Sunlight Foundation, a political ethics watchdog group. “But he has not,” she said, “so it’s party time.”

A spokesman for the Obama campaign, Ben LaBolt, said the Senator could not “make changes to this year’s convention” because of the “very late end to the primary season.” As a result, lobbyists are once again spending millions of dollars here on gourmet food, top-shelf liquor and private lavish parties for Democratic elected officials who seem more than happy to play the role of world-class freeloaders.

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators agreed to the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces by the end of 2011 and are nearing resolution of other issues, Iraqi officials said. Among the outstanding issues is whether U.S. military personnel would be subject to Iraqi law if accused of committing crimes, The Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) reported Friday.

“We have a text,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit Thursday to Baghdad. Both governments must complete and approve the agreement before a U.N. mandate authorizing international military intervention in Iraq expires at the end this year.

It is a significant development for the American effort in Iraq and signifies that victory is at hand, but it also takes away Obama’s greatest weapon and wisdom (that Iraq was a mistake) and gives credence to John McCain’s greatest claim (that he knows foreign policy and was right to stand by the War in Iraq). This move effectively removes Iraq from the discussion except for McCain to say “I told you so!” and allows McCain to attack Obama’s flank on economic issues. “Tax Man,” as Laura Ingraham was saying on Fox News tonight. Shades of 88.