Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama now has a major ally in his push for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tells a German outlet that he'd like to see troops leave 'as soon as possible, as far as we are concerned.' He then added: 'U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama is right when he talks about 16 months.'

Amanda Terkel with Think Progress is down in Austin live-blogging former Vice President Al Gore's address to the lefty blogosphere. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) introduced Gore and also took questions, one of which was about Maliki's declaration.

'So with the prime minister saying it’s time for you to go,' she told the crowd, 'I think it’s time for our country to sit down with the Iraqis and work that plan out. [We need to be] respectful of what the prime minister says, and respectful of the will of the American people, who have been against this war for a long time...[We should] have a high-level meeting with the Iraqis to work out the terms of our deployment out of Iraq...So, the end could be in sight.' ...