Hard news all around, again tonight. Today's announcement on the next set of time triggers in Iraq has people asking some very serious questions about timing and who's calling the shots. Chief among the questions I've heard today: How can an Iraq government, which has proved all but incapable of governing, suddenly find the justification (or enforcement power) to name a new set of deadlines for the future? We'll report what we know tonight, from the Pentagon to Iraq, where Richard Engel will run the story down for us. We'll also drop in on David Gregory at the White House.

Chip Reid will have our report on Speaker Hastert's drop-by today on the Hill, and Andrea Mitchell will take a look at the political ads getting all the ink in this campaign. We continue our series on housing (tonight, those tricky mortgages), talk about health -- and if our lineup times out correctly -- we'll get off the air with a cultural touchstone of sorts from Josh Mankiewicz in our Los Angeles bureau... though it strikes me he reported the piece in question from Dallas.

Today's day-long political coverage on MSNBC has gone well. Andrea has this hour, and earlier today I watched Lester, Tim and Chris. For junkies, it's just what we want this close to the event. I was surprised earlier today at the movement in some of the polls measuring some of the races. We had David Gergen on today, who talked about the new Harvard/U.S.News & World Report survey on leadership. It might just contain the key to the next Presidential election.

We hope you can join us tonight.