Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson joins Hillary Clinton and the chorus blaming the media for Rev. Terry Jones today, arguing that by covering the would-be Koran desecrator we enabled the creation of “something new, something that will be studied for generations: the propaganda of the idiotic gesture.”
On the contrary, the …
—The Fed sees “deceleration in overall economic activity.”
–Preisdent Obama used the word “Boehner” more than the word “hope” in his speech on the economy yesterday.
–A few bright spots from this morning: New jobless claims dropped to a two-month low last week and exports hit a near two-year high.
TIME’s Massimo Calabresi files this report:
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations today laying out the case for America’s continued authority in the world. “The complexities and connections of today’s world have yielded a new American moment,” Clinton said, uncorking the speech’s …
Forget those rumors that she’ll take Joe Biden’s place on the presidential ticket. At lease one Chicago dentist, William DeJean, with deep pockets has launched a movement to get Hillary Clinton to challenge President Obama for the top spot in 2012, according to our friends at CNN. The minute-long ad is thus far only airing in New …
Reuters
–Direct Israeli-Palestinian talks begin today at the State Department.
–Ethan Bronner writes Bibi has the power to deal.
–Ben Smith thinks the whole affair has a fly-by-the-seat-of-their pants feel to it and that yesterday’s pre-game posturing went well for the White House.
–Scherer dives deep into Obama’s …
–President Obama will address the nation from the Oval Office tonight on the end of combat operations in Iraq. Crowley provides some good context of the challenges the speech presents. Marc Ambinder engages in some (informed) speculation on what he’ll say. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs makes it sound like it will be a pivot from Iraq …
Reuters/Jim Young
—Obama is going out on a limb by associating himself with the precarious direct Mideast peace talks, writes the L.A. Times.
–Bibi is reassuring fellow Likudniks that he’s made no promises on settlements.
–Martin Indyk knows hope.
–Coming soon to a Harry Reid attack ad near you: Sharron Angle opposed …
Swamplanders may have noticed a post from a new name this afternoon, TIME’s National Security correspondent extraordinaire Mark Thompson.
Mark is a Pulitzer Prize winner for his 1985 Fort Worth Star-Telegram five-part story about a design flaw in Bell helicopters that went uncorrected for a decade and claimed 250 lives during that …
Reuters
–The White House thinks direct Israeli-Palestinian talks are a good way to undermine Hamas.
–Ethan Bronner sees skeptical observers and an air of resignation on both sides.
–Settlements remain a potential sticking point.
–Just back from Afghanistan, John Kerry sounds optimistic about chances for political …
JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
–Our colleague Bobby Ghosh explores Islamophobia in America for this week’s newsstand edition of TIME. A taste:
But to be a Muslim in America now is to endure slings and arrows against your faith — not just in the schoolyard and the office but also outside your place of worship and in the public
…
REUTERS/Larry Downing
–The Obama administration is hosting a conference today on “the future of housing finance” The main issue: Figuring out what on earth to do with budget-busting mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Republicans want to shut them down, Democrats point out that for now, there is basically no mortgage …
On the one hand, it’s pretty hard to envision Barack Obama–whose candidacy was partly premised on reconciling America with the Muslim world–launching a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. On the other hand you have data points like Jeffrey Goldberg’s latest Atlantic opus, in which White House officials insist that “President …
Well, of course he does. It is the nature of David Petraeus to move mountains to achieve his mission–and the immediate mountain sitting in front of him is the Obama Administration’s December policy review, which will determine how quickly we start to leave Afghanistan in July 2011.
Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal came away from the …
