Pervez Musharraf, the former Army general turned (former) President of Pakistan, is a different man than the Musharraf who has now declared that he will again contest for his nation’s presidency.

The World Economic Forum‘s Global Competitiveness Index offers comparative rankings for 139 countries.  Here is the pdf of the United States report. Here’s how the United States ranked on the various criteria in the 2010-2011 Global Competitiveness Report.  The picture is not good.

Reuters This morning, Washington Post editors challenge Mitt Romney‘s foreign policy views in this morning’s lead editorial and also give Jon Huntsman a working over.

News is breaking now that U.S. investigators have arrested suspected senior officials of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard/Quds force for an alleged plot to orchestrate the assassination of Saudi Ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubeir.

At the 2011 Washington Ideas Forum, former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf tells Atlantic Media Chairman David Bradley that he was 500 percent sure that at least he did not know about bin Laden residing inside Pakistan.  If true, that’s very bad news.

Reuters/Mike Segar As David Frum has said, if the Republican Party is an oligarchy, Mitt Romney will head the GOP ticket.  If it is a democracy, anyone but Romney will.

Today at 12:15 pm EST, I’ll be chairing a session with former Former National Intelligence Officer and current Harvard professor Ezra Vogel on his new book, Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China. Join us in DC at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in person — or watch live here at The Washington Note….

I am embarrassed not to have previously known the work of MIT historian Pauline Maier, winner of the 2011 George Washington Book Prize for her gripping account of the state by state drama over ratifying the US Constitution.

Joshua Roberts/Reuters This article first appeared at The Atlantic. Senator Jon Kyl made news this week by telegraphing in advance the tantrums he would throw — including resignation from his responsibilities as a member of the so-called “supercommittee” –  if the Congressional group pushes for more defense cuts.

Word broke today that Barack Obama’s funniest speechwriter Jon Lovett — performing above at the Washington Improv (giving an impeccable impersonation of Arianna Huffington) and who along with lead Obama wordsmith, Jon Favreau, was the genius this year behind President Obama’s Trump-stirring White House Correspondent’s Dinner speech — will be leaving DC to write funny…