My Atlantic colleague Jeffrey Goldberg just scored an extensive interview with President Obama in which Obama says to Iran and Israel, “As President of the United States, I don’t bluff.” Goldberg’s preamble is important and must-read, but the interview itself is vital and gives one a good sense of both Obama’s strategic strengths and weaknesses….

Admittedly, this is a little Dr. Strangelovish — but was very intrigued by this video clip a reader sent of “Robot Quadrotors Performing James Bond Theme.

  Photo credit: TED This evening, The Atlantic‘s new event series, Atlantic Exchange, will host former Al Jazeera Director General Wadah Khanfar for a discussion I will moderate titled “Arab Revolutions Televised, Tweeted and Blogged: The Exit & Entrance Interview with Wadah Khanfar.” Khanfar is now the founding President of the Sharq Forum.

Here are some thoughts on the churn inside Egypt over pro-Democracy NGO institutions that I shared on Al Jazeera yesterday. Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham see the crisis coming to a close soon, with the NGO workers released.

Gordon Shaw of Lincoln, Nebraska writes to the editors of the Journal Star: As I look over the leading candidates for president of the United States, I and many I have talked with have the common reaction: “none of the above.

photo credit:  Reuters While everyone knows that the defense budget is large — even in the numbers that the public sees as the formally admitted figures by the Department of Defense — the truth is that when one scratches beneath the bureaucratic veneer, national security spending is much larger, nearly double the amount US citizens…

Last evening I had an interesting chat with Lawrence O’Donnell, host of MSNBC’s The Last Word, considering how President Obama has done answering the “3 am call” versus how Mitt Romney might answer the crisis call.  As promised, here is the clip.

Tonight at about 10:45 pm EST, I will be chatting with MSNBC anchor of The Last Word, Lawrence O’Donnell about the comparative foreign policy and national security strengths of President Obama versus GOP contender Mitt Romney. I wonder how many layers of staff (i.e.

Holy Indian reservation roulette wheels Batman!  The newly launched Republic Report, an anti-corruption blog focusing on how self-interested dollars are warping the public-interest responsibilities of America’s democratic institutions has actually hired convicted felon Jack Abramoff to be one of its lead bloggers.

Chris Matthews speaks with The Atlantic‘s Steve Clemons and Matthew Hoh of the Center for International Policy Last night, former State Department official and US Marine Matthew Hoh, now a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, and I had a very good discussion with Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball about Defense Secretary Leon…