I was in Beijing just a little over a week ago. Steve isn’t kidding about the smog — on the bad days, visibility is about 10 blocks. On the very worst day, I couldn’t see clearly from one side of Tienanmen Square to the other.
China’s been out of the game for a few hundred years, but it’s back. The Chinese themselves believe that their collective ascendancy is fragile and fraught with problems — particularly environmental degradation associated with growth. The smog in Beijing really stings the unconditioned eyeball.
I’m glad Barack Obama’s campaign has stated that it is giving up the morphed Obama/Presidential Seal podium sign. I didn’t like it. But Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars had an excellent retort on presidential seal hubris. See above graphic and the link to her piece.
About to board the direct flight from Dulles to Beijing. Look forward to catching up with TWN readers there. But a great friend of mine who works for the State Department in Vienna sent me this clip that will make any travelers, or wannabe globe-trotters, smile. More soon.
Senator Obama put out this statement today on his just announced trips to Europe, Israel and Jordan: “This trip will be an important opportunity for me to assess the situation in countries that are critical to American national security, and to consult with some of our closest friends and allies about the common challenges we…
Some quick thoughts that I just shared on North Korea nuclear deal-making thus far: — Steve Clemons
We’re hosting a session at New America Foundation this afternoon with National Economics Correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Peter Gosselin, and CSPAN’s BookTV on the shift of financial risk to individual Americans.
If I write “net nootrality” the way it should be spelled, my posts pop up on a zillion google alerts — which produce an avalanche of emails from stakeholders in the debate. I’m trying to get ready for a China trip so I can’t handle an email tsunami this week.
This is awkward as the Australian American Leadership Dialogue meeting at which I posed a question to Vice President Cheney was off the record — but it’s out there now in the New York Times.