A mere six months ago, it seemed a good bet that Hillary Clinton would win the Democratic presidential nomination. It didn’t turn out that way. The Op-Ed page asked 13 political experts to explain why they thought her campaign didn’t live up to expectations.

What Went Wrong?

Hendrik Hertzberg:

Interesting how different things can look from inside a bubble. Or a bunker.

The Lady Doesn’t Vanish

There are two ways to look at the Basra fighting. It is either the beginning of a newly confident Iraqi state, asserting itself against Muqtada's militia, or it is the beginning of something close to a Shiite civil war. Later this year, Iraq is scheduled to hold elections for provincial officials. Whoever wins, it is very likely that the losers will not accept the results. In places such as Basra, that could mean more Shiite-against-Shiite violence. And this time even the Iranians may not be able to stop it.

Muqtada: Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq by Patrick Cockburn, reviewed by The New Republic Online

The Book Review asked a handful of writers to recommend books for the presidential candidates. Their suggestions are below.

Survey: Truth to Power

If, as now seems almost certain, it will be McCain v. Obama in the autumn, hopes will be raised again for a real debate about the issues, between two principled candidates. These hopes will then be dashed as the campaign settles back into the associative groove, and spews out electronic reams of associative comment bemoaning that this should be so. There is at least some uncertainty at this stage in knowing which particular associations will be decisive. The key demographic – unaffiliated 40+ white voters in the swing states – may be pulled in two different directions. On the one hand, many of them clearly have an instinctive dislike of Barack Obama, because of his sanctimony, his cool demeanour, or because of the colour of his skin. On the other hand, many of them also appear to have developed (if recent state and congressional results are anything to go by) an instinctive dislike of the Republican Party, because of its complete inability to govern successfully. It will be interesting to see which set of associations gets more firmly entrenched by November, because that is what will decide the election. My guess is that people will divide pretty evenly on this question, as the party machines prod them from both sides, and that the final result will be extremely close. What is certain is that the surrounding noise will not diminish, and there will doubtless be a poll to suit every taste, and an elegant piece of analysis to suit every hope. The democratic conversation will continue, but it’s not the one that Dewey had in mind. People are talking, but no one is really listening. For all the fun and fantasy that can be had following this election on the internet, the overriding impression it gives after a while is of tuning into thousands of people as they sit in their cars and complain about the traffic.

The Cattle-Prod Election

What’s a band to do if it hasn’t got the cash to make its own music video and lives in a country with extremely high levels of CCTV?

Well, Get Out Clause used state CCTV cameras and their rights to access information ...

CCTV, Get Out Clause and iMovie

Death to SBU! Long live CUI!

Sometime in the next few years, if a memorandum signed by President Bush this month ever goes into effect, one government official talking to another about information on terrorists will have to begin by saying: "What I am about to tell you is controlled unclassified information enhanced with specified dissemination."

That would mean, according to the memo, that the information requires safeguarding because "the inadvertent or unauthorized disclosure would create risk of substantial harm."

Bush's memorandum, signed on the eve of his daughter Jenna's wedding, introduced "Controlled Unclassified Information" as a new government category that will replace "Sensitive but Unclassified."

Keeping Secrets: In Presidential Memo, A New Designation for Classifying Information

George Packer:

Have the Republicans run out of ideas?

The Political Scene: The Fall of Conservatism

The United States is currently involved in a wide spectrum of complex national security challenges around the world. Challenges posed by rising regional powers, global terrorism, and failed states will be long and enduring. These can only be effectively met with the help of our allies and coalition partners.

Toward a U.S. Export Control and Technology Transfer System for the 21st Century

Max Boot on a new memoir from Ricardo Sanchez:

Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan. As if to validate that old adage, the first few years of the Iraq war have produced a spate of memoirs that amount to denials of paternity.

The tragedy of Ric Sanchez is that his fast ascent culminated in an assignment for which he was not prepared and not suited. He went overnight from commanding fewer than 20,000 soldiers in one division to commanding 180,000 U.S. and allied soldiers trying to gain control of 25 million Iraqis. Reflecting a generally held view, Tom Ricks's "Fiasco" quotes one officer as saying, "He was in over his head." The general's denunciations of others would be more convincing if he were prepared to admit the painful truth about himself.

The General's Chain of Blame in Iraq