I’m still in Saudi Arabia and haven’t had the time to absorb everything that has been churning this last week with the Petraeus/Crocker hearings and other Senator Foreign Relations Committee meetings focused on Iraq that Senators Joe Biden and Richard Lugar have called.
(Gas pipeline map from The Economist, Jan. 24, 2008) One of the leads for this week’s Economist emphasizes the role of energy security for Europe, and in particular, pipeline diversification over missile defense.
Ben Smith of Politico points out that Barack Obama has “drawn a line” regarding which of the world’s problematic bad guys should be met by Presidents like himself — and Jimmy Carter. He thinks Carter should not meet any Hamas leaders.
This picture, which found its way into my inbox today, is a pretty good reflection of the trajectory of U.S. versus Russian influence at the moment. Don’t get it? Look closely — there’s a second Head of State in the background.
Laura Rozen has penned a fascinating piece on the bumpy ride that hyper-conservative “Freedom’s Watch” has had thus far in its emergence as a conservative challenger to MoveOn.org.
Frank Luntz comments on the thread below regarding his appearance at USUN. And anyone who takes the time to comment on a post concerning him or her deserves some front page attention in my book. This is Frank Luntz here.
Hillary Clinton is making a wrong-headed play in her call to President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games. After the collision of an American EP-3 spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter in April 2001, neoconservative high priest Richard Perle advocated preempting China’s bid to host the 2008 Olympics.
The U.S. Mission to the United Nations is hosting a briefing on the 2008 presidential elections later this week. The three speakers are Former Rep. David Bonior from the Edwards campaign, Former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey from the Romney campaign, and Frank Luntz.
It was announced a short bit ago that Mark Penn is stepping down (well, has been fired) as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign.
As we were driving in from the airport into the heart of Riyadh, I saw a beautiful building with a hole in it called the “Kingdom Centre,” built by the well-known global investor Prince Alwaleed.
