Summary: At the Iowa GOP / Fox News Debate in Ames, Iowa, Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty fought a rhetorical slugging match, with Bachmann likening Pawlenty to President Barack Obama and Pawlenty charging that Bachmann’s record of accomplishment in Congress “is nonexistent” and that “she has a record of misstating and making false statements.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 11, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported and analyzed the primary election results in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District (MN-06).

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Summary: Chris Cillizza, in his Washington Post blog, “The Fix,” writes that Michele Bachmann’s measured response to the controversial photo of her on the cover of Newsweek magazine “affirms a simple but important truth of this campaign: Michele Bachmann is no Sarah Palin.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 10, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: Politico reports that Barack Obama’s aides and advisers are preparing to center the president’s reelection campaign on a ferocious personal assault on Mitt Romney’s character and business background, a strategy grounded in the early-stage expectation that the former Massachusetts governor is the likely GOP nominee. However, the Obama campaign would be sorely misguided if it diverted inordinate resources to fending off Romney as Barack Obama’s likely opponent. Despite being the early front-runner in public opinion polls, Romney is unlikely to be the Republican presidential nominee, with the vastly underestimated Michele Bachmann potentially posing the greater reelection threat to Obama in terms of personal charisma. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 9, 2010, Aubrey Immelman appealed to Minnesota voters to support Independent Tom Horner for governor in the August 10, 2010 primary election.

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Summary: The possibility that power brokers and warlords in Afghanistan might be what keeps the country from unraveling has had analysts concerned, but the recent assassination of Ahmad Wali Karzai, one of the most powerful strongmen in Afghanistan, and the ensuing struggle in Kandahar for power, has brought the issue into sharp relief as the U.S. begins to draw down forces. Though much of the international effort in Afghanistan has focused on strengthening democratic institutions, foreign forces have often had to lean on strongmen. As a result, a new generation of warlords has risen to power, fueled by U.S. money. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 8, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Taliban insurgents gunned down ten members of a Christian medical team — six Americans, two Afghans, one German, and a Briton — in Badakhshan province, Afghanistan.

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Summary: A military helicopter has been shot down in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 U.S. special operation troops, most of them from the elite Navy SEALs unit that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, along with seven Afghan commandos and an Afghan translator. It was the deadliest single incident for American forces in the decade-long war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 7, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the Justice Department announced the indictment of 14 people — 12 of them Minnesota Somalis, many of them U.S. citizens — accused of funneling “money, personnel, and services” to the Shabab, the Islamist terrorist group fighting an insurgency in Somalia.

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Summary: As the Tea Party continues to reshape the Republican Party, the GOP establishment wonders if the Tea Party movement will power Republicans to new victories in 2012, or dash them on the rocks of unbending ideology. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 6, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that NBC Dateline devoted a full hour to the murder mystery of Chris Jenkins, the University of Minnesota student who went missing in downtown Minneapolis on Halloween night, 2002.

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Summary: Weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, compiled from U.S. Department of Defense news releases and iCasualties.org. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 5, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker overturned California’s gay marriage ban in a strongly worded ruling that could force the U.S. Supreme Court to confront the question of whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

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Summary: The United States has a plan to try to “snatch” Pakistan’s 100-plus nuclear weapons by force if and when the president believes they are a threat to either the U.S. or vital U.S. interests. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 4, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that public support for President Obama’s Afghanistan war policy had plummeted amid a rising U.S. death toll, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, which also showed Obama’s handling of the war in Iraq at record-low approval.

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Summary: Christian cleansing continued in post-Saddam Iraq as a car bomb outside a Christian church in the north of the country wounded 23 people and security forces found and disabled vehicles packed with explosives outside two other churches in Kirkuk. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 3, 2010, Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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Summary: MSNBC TV hosts Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell, and Rachel Maddow have made early forecasts of the winner of the 2012 presidential election. With the exception of Matthews, the talks show hosts are overestimating Barack Obama’s prospects for reelection and all three are underestimating Michele Bachmann’s potential for success. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 2, 2010, Aubrey Immelman endorsed former Republican Tom Horner as the best choice for Minnesota in the Independence Party gubernatorial primary.

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