By Steve Clemons

I know — not the best headline and easily misunderstood as a cheap shot, which I don’t intend. . .

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy NBC’s Nightly News with Brian Williams ran an excellent clip last night on the “unfairness” of some Americans being allowed to travel to Cuba while others are blocked.

I am up this morning in Pittsburgh speaking in a forum sponsored by the RAND Corporation and the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh about the political context of next week’s G-20 meeting. We’ve just gone through one morning panel, and I will be in the next segment that starts at 9:45 am.

(photo courtesy of Atlantic Council of the United States) Barack Obama has invited Colin Powell in to see him today — and knowing General Powell’s respect for the Office of the President, whether occupied by Barack Obama or George W.

Charlie Cook, one of the best political handicappers in the country, sees the Democratic camp diverging in three directions — loyal Obamites, Liberal purists, and skeptics.

Politico‘s Ben Smith got the scoop on a letter today drafted and signed by a number of realist-tilting scholars and commentators raising many of the key questions and concerns about growing US presence in Afghanistan that were Obama’s concerns about Iraq.

Big conference on America’s debt mess today. I’m moderating a big chunk. Here is the rundown of a very interesting symposium thinking through the challenges of private debt overhang and the public debt debate. The bursting of the housing and credit bubbles has left the United States with a huge debt overhang.

President Obama has missed yet another chance to pressure Congress to end the self-inflicted damage of a “unilateral embargo” against Cuba and to take American foreign policy writ large in a new, more constructive direction.

Does anyone even remember that this was supposed to be about Osama bin Laden? How did we get into a full on war with the Taliban and thus in the middle of an Afghan Civil War in which neither side likes us much? The Obama administration has made a major mistake in allowing a sleight-of-hand…

The Obama administration today lightened travel and remittance restrictions for US-based relatives of Cuban citizens residing in Cuba. The limit on relatives is noted at “second cousins.” Hooray! — not. OK — it’s some progress. But this is progress that the Cuban-American right wing wanted.