President Obama is out fast embracing the better than expected drop in employment stating that “the worst may be behind us” on the recession. Quick counterpoint.

I hope all of you are having decent weekends. I am and am blessed with this view just a 30 second stroll from where I am staying.

No doubt the elephant in the room at last week’s U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue was the dramatic shift in economic momentum between the two powers: the most recent economic reports from each nation confirm that China’s economy grew by a startling 7.

While the media are drawn to the story of the day, which today means the killing of Baitullah Mehsud in Pakistan and the longevity of the “cash for clunkers” program here at home, it is essential for the Obama administration to keep its eye on the strategic ball.

(post-2007 Australian American Leadership Dialogue Dinner: Anne Keating, Anne Wexler, Steve Clemons, Lesley Russell, Bruce Wolpe, Former Prime Minister Paul Keating; photo credit: Ambassador Joseph Duffey) One of the people who opened many otherwise closed doors for me in Washington, DC is Anne Wexler — an amazing politico in Washington married to the equally peripatetic…

In today’s Guardian, Tariq Ramadan argues that Europe must develop a unified policy of inclusion with regard to Turkey’s EU membership bid. I agree with the thrust of the article, which makes many of the same arguments I put forth in my article in World Politics Review last week.

In the aftermath of Vice President Biden’s visit to Georgia last month, Alexander Melikishvili over at the Jamestown Foundation‘s Eurasia blog provides an informative review of the Obama administration’s unfolding Georgia policy.

Reading Vaclav Havel’s “To The Castle and Back” yesterday, I got wildly distracted, and found myself YouTubing my DC power/intellect crush: the luminous Samantha Power. Havel’s book is a tremendous read — scattered and tangential, but fascinating nonetheless.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy Here are my thoughts from an exchange with Keith Olbermann on Bill Clinton’s surprise trip to Pyongyang to secure the release of journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling.

Bill Clinton is flying back to the US with just pardoned journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea.