Archives: January 2008

Barack Obama had been impressing me a while back with some calibrated, sensible approaches to recasting US-Cuba relations in this next era.

On the night of the New Hampshire primaries, I was attending the 2007 Distinguished Service Award Dinner of the Nixon Center at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown. At the dinner, I heard (and recorded) a highly unusual, yet revealing roast of Henry Kissinger by billionaire Peter Peterson — who was himself the night’s honoree….

(Bill Richardson, accompanied by foreign policy advisor Calvin Humphrey to his left, negotiating a hostage release with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

My New America Foundation colleague and fellow blogger Mark Schmitt and I discuss the New Hampshire primary results. The following clip runs about eight minutes.

Booman Tribune’s Martin Longman compares yesterday’s New Hampshire primary results, including the turnout levels, to the 2004 race. But in his kicker he writes: Clinton won because of higher female turnout and higher registered Democrat turnout. Independents voted for Obama at a 41%-31% clip.

Benjamin Eckstein, President of the betting site America’s Line, said: “If a woman came in with two years of experience as Obama has had in the Senate, she’d really be laughed out of the campaign. But yet Obama with two years of experience is right there. And that’s why we’re still making Hillary our favorite.

A prominent national security expert zapped me a note the other day commenting positively on something I had posted on the blog, but he admonished me for taking Iowa so seriously. And he had a point.

The One Campaign — committed to generating international support to fight global poverty and disease — is slowly x’ing out the candidates. Michael Tomasky thinks Duncan Hunter is probably out next — and has written that Fred Thompson “Campaigns as though he can’t wait until he can drop out of the race.

Everyone knows the news. McCain and Hillary Clinton beat expectations — big time.