By Steve Clemons

Excerpts follow after the fold. . .

From what we know of Joe Biden’s “skunk at the White House picnic” skepticism of increasing troop deployments to Afghanistan during President Obama’s three month strategy review process, it would appear — on the surface — that Biden didn’t come up with the winning hand.

Greetings from Berlin where I’m having a very productive set of meetings organized by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. Way busy today — much to post on at a later time, but the big news now is that in a few hours President Barack Obama will be outlining his revised Afghanistan policy at West Point.

Hope everyone had a terrific and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend. I’m off to Berlin this evening and staying for a few days to meet new players in the German government and to think through Barack Obama’s next move on Afghanistan.

. . .you will see that the world has moved close to the financial brink again given the debt default by Dubai World. Some believe that Dubai’s confidence-jarring effort to reschedule its debt servicing may trigger a round of other sovereign debt defaults around the globe.

The United States, during the Bush administration, started a very serious change of course in its strategic relationship with India — a huge democratic nation that has been at best ambivalent about relations with the United States for decades.

(This essay was commissioned by and first appeared in The Huffington Post.) Arianna Huffington asked me (and a sizeable gaggle of her other pals) to write something up for Thanksgiving.

This is a guest note by Daniel Levy, who served as the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative and directs the New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force. Pugnacious Netanyahu Pushes U.S. to Call for 1967 Borders Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announced yesterday his cabinet’s decision, “To suspend new construction in Judea and Samaria.

Maureen Dowd has somehow inspired an industry of folks who really dislike her work as an essayist. I ran into this when I wrote approvingly of an incredible Inauguration party she hosted at her home and which I attended. It was her “Star Spangled Inauguration Party”, and I wore a star spangled tie.

The White House Office of the Press Secretary A New Way Forward: The President’s Address to the American People on Afghan Strategy Oval Office For Immediate Release — December 2nd 8:01 P.M. EDT My fellow Americans, On March 28th, I outlined what I called a “comprehensive, new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.” It was ambitious….