Great Challenges Make Great Presidents? Obama Not There Yet

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(photo credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) I wrote this article today for Salon.com reviewing President Obama’s performance over the past year. I hope you’ll read the entire piece — but here’s the intro plus a bit more: Great Challenges Make Great Leaders Yes, Obama inherited a presidency in bad shape.

Senate Race in Massachusetts: Obama’s Health Care Effort Looks A Lot Like Afghanistan Mess

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I haven’t watched the Senate race in Massachusetts all that closely. I was impressed with the smart policy work, particularly in foreign policy issues, that Alan Khazei’s campaign put out. Khazei touched on a lot of issues that the better known but more issues mum Martha Coakley put out.

Google & China: Internet Freedom vs. Hard Core Business Bruising?

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The threat by Google to pull out of China because of Chinese espionage efforts to hack into the gmail accounts of human rights activists has captured enormous attention. Of course, anyone who has paid any consistent attention to China and its massive growth would know that the Google revelations are really nothing new.

Gregory Craig will Strengthen Strong Roster on President’s Intel Advisory Board

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Gregory Craig — deal maker on Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, key architect of Obama’s “engage everyone — even the bad guys” position in the campaign, and the conscience of the the national security staff in Obama’s White House who said that the public really needed to know that American officials waterboarded…

Chatting with Zogby about Obama’s Middle East Scorecard, Pat Robertson & Haiti, and Dubai

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This week I chatted with Arab American Institute President James Zogby on his program Viewpoint about Pat Robertson’s hateful comments about Haitians in the aftermath of staggering tragedy. To remind, Robertson said that Haiti was a cursed nations because Haitian slaves rebelling against their slaveholders and French control did a deal with the devil.