By Steve Clemons

(photo credit: Andrew and Diane of Nemablog) I had never heard of a polar desert before — but the pic above is of one.

My friend and New America Foundation colleague Nicholas Schmidle has just published an extensive profile of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari titled “The Black Widower“. The piece got me thinking about what a successful strategic shift in our eroding situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan would look like.

Very interesting speech by Obama today on bringing the Iraq War to a close. Obama stated moments ago that troop levels in Iraq will be brought down to 50,000 by August 2010 — and then all forces will be removed by the end of 2011. America’s financial crisis is driving much of this.

This is a guest post by James K. Glassman, former Chairman of Public Broadcasting and former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy. Glassman was also editor of Roll Call and was founding editor of The American, and is now president of the World Growth Institute. This piece first ran in The American earlier today….

UT Austin/LBJ School of Public Policy economist James K. Galbraith is testifying this morning at 10 am EST for the House Financial Services Committee. He will be joined by economists John Taylor and Alan Blinder. Galbraith, a fervent Obama supporter, is not much impressed by the early moves of President Obama’s economic team.

Laura Rozen has done a really great piece of reporting on Dennis Ross‘ new appointment as “Special Advisor on the Gulf and Southwest Asia” to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Very much worth reading in full to get a Kremlinological fix on Ross’ seemingly reduced role.

About a year and a half ago, I attended a very nice reception in New York in honor of German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Lots of Germans there and many top tier German, European, and American media from Washington, New York, and Berlin.

Last night, President Obama said in his remarks to a joint meeting of Congress: To seek progress toward a secure and lasting peace between Israel and her neighbours, we have appointed an envoy to sustain our effort. I dislike the word “sustain” here.

I have just some very quick reactions to the Obama speech tonight as I’ve been on Al Jazeera English Network tonight talking for more than three hours on it and don’t want to really repeat the general patter of many other commentators and bloggers.

This is a guest post for The Washington Note by UC Berkeley cognitive linguistics professor George Lakoff, author of The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain and Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate–The Essential Guide for Progressives.