(Usually) The Union Leader

Of course, in general The Manchester Union Leader is a guiding light in the universe of print journalism, but this paragraph by correspondent Kristen Senz in today's issue ("Biden lays out plan for Iraq") is not the paper's finest moment:

"Biden said his Iraq plan would cost about a fifth as much as the $8.5 billion annually that has been spent on the war in recent years."

If you think $8.5 billion sounds wildly off, that's because it is. In today's Houston Chronicle, courtesy of the AP, it says Bush's 2008 budget request "for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan" is $142 billion. So unless Afghanistan is costing us $133.5 billion and also twenty times more than we spend on Iraq, either the AP or -- perish the thought! -- the Union Leader is confused about decimal places or something ...although $85 billion a year still sounds really low.

But wait, isn't it also possible it was Biden who was wrong on the numbers? Nah, then we'd be reading about it in a Union Leader editorial, the only place opinion comes out in the publication. Except, perhaps, subliminally.