Obama Knows How to Perform, at Least Belatedly in Case of 2002 Speech

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Ronald Reagan thought acting was great prep for the presidency. And recently, Ben Affleck told me that he saw some obvious similarities between DC and Hollywood while here shooting his next film, State of Play. But Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are taking “staging” to a new level.

McCain’s “Rogue State Rollback” Sounds Like John Foster Dulles & Curtis LeMay

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My colleague and friend Anatol Lieven published a no-punches pulled critique of John McCain’s foreign policy and national security probabilities in the Financial Times today, titled “Why We Should Fear a McCain Presidency.” Lieven makes a point I did recently: McCain used to be considered “an old-style conservative realist.

Venting About Debbie Wasserman Schultz

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House of Representatives buddies Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) Starting at 10 am today, a number of progressive blogs are going to encourage their readers to call the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to complain about the unwillingness of DCCC Red-to-Blue Program Debbie Wasserman Scultz’s refusal to assist Democratic contenders challenging her pro-Cuba…

America Exported Poisoned Financial Products

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As TWN readers know, I have been on a lot of international travel lately — to Beijing, Mumbain, Tokyo, Berlin, London, Brussels, and Tel Aviv. In all of these places, I met angry and frustrated finance ministry bureaucrats, central bankers, retail bankers, investment bankers, and other fund managers.

Freedom to Travel? More on the Audacity and Hypocrisy of Debbie Wasserman Schultz

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I had to laugh reading the news that Florida insurance regulators are zapping a major insurance firm because of the travel preferences of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL-20). Schultz apparently applied for an ‘increased amount’ of life insurance because she planned to travel internationally.

Morning Reading: The Munich Security Conference Special Supplement

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Across my desk just came an interesting newspaper supplement packed with some thoughtful national security related interviews and commentary from the Munich Security Conference. The publication was jointly published by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the American Academy in Berlin.

A Republican-Hugging Debate: The Sins of Debbie Wasserman Schultz

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Wearing blue is sometimes just not enough. I hug a lot of Republicans — particularly today’s “dissident Republicans in foreign and economic policy”, and there are some Dems I won’t go near — and the flip is true. I hug a lot of Democrats, and there are a lot of Republicans I won’t go near….

Giving Businesses an On Ramp to Climate Change Action

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P.J. Simmons, formerly with the Sea Studios Foundation and now with Big Blue Advisors, just sent me this link to a high quality Sea Studios video titled “Ahead of the Curve: Business Responds to Climate Change.” It is 12 minutes long — and I hope folks watch it, particularly those in the business community.