By Steve Clemons

This is just a great clip on what it’s all about. To paraphrase Russ Feingold, it’s about the end of liberty. . . Thanks to Matt Stoller for sending.

When John McCain lost in 2000 to President Bush, his followers were left to wander in the wilderness during President Bush’s first term. They had chosen the wrong horse and Bush’s loyalty-obsessed handlers wanted to make the McCain team pay. By the time the second term came around, there was some loosening but not much….

Seven minutes and seven seconds. . .

I just had an interesting meeting with a prominent and thoughtful national security expert in Washington. I can’t go into any of the details of the meeting, but I am intrigued with the calculation that at least one serious, non-ideological pragmatist in foreign policy is making.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2:30 pm, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson will be speaking to the Real Estate Roundtable’s State of the Industry Meeting. According to a press release, he will discuss the state of the U.S. economy and the fiscal growth package.

. . .if not in politics (he says facetiously). The Washington Post has just launched a new website, The Root, which will attempt to provide a portal for all things cultural and political related to the African-American community. Here is a video intro.

I have friends now addicted to clicking this over and over and over again.

I just did a video log of my reactions to President Bush’s speech last night and will post in a bit — but my quick bullet point response to the evening included these items: 1. This was Bush’s least memorable speech because it may have been his least stridently partisan. 2.

I haven’t seen President Bush’s speech yet — just highlights — though about to watch it tonight. Wolf Blitzer, though, just said that Bush revisits the theme of the “axis of evil” tonight. Mistake.

According to Andrew Malcolm, Rudy Giuliani dropped a hint that he might drop out of the race — and then bounced back to say he’d win Florida. Dems will miss Guiliani I think. He was the best hope that they had of a relatively easy win in November.