Seven minutes and seven seconds. . .

I just had an interesting meeting with a prominent and thoughtful national security expert in Washington. I can’t go into any of the details of the meeting, but I am intrigued with the calculation that at least one serious, non-ideological pragmatist in foreign policy is making.

Someone forwarded me an email to take this American Public Media quiz that would select my preferred candidate based on my policy preferences. It’s a very appealing approach to abstract away personalities and nuance and purport to objectively measure candidates simply on the issues.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2:30 pm, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson will be speaking to the Real Estate Roundtable’s State of the Industry Meeting. According to a press release, he will discuss the state of the U.S. economy and the fiscal growth package.

. . .if not in politics (he says facetiously). The Washington Post has just launched a new website, The Root, which will attempt to provide a portal for all things cultural and political related to the African-American community. Here is a video intro.

I have friends now addicted to clicking this over and over and over again.

I just did a video log of my reactions to President Bush’s speech last night and will post in a bit — but my quick bullet point response to the evening included these items: 1. This was Bush’s least memorable speech because it may have been his least stridently partisan. 2.

I haven’t seen President Bush’s speech yet — just highlights — though about to watch it tonight. Wolf Blitzer, though, just said that Bush revisits the theme of the “axis of evil” tonight. Mistake.

According to Andrew Malcolm, Rudy Giuliani dropped a hint that he might drop out of the race — and then bounced back to say he’d win Florida. Dems will miss Guiliani I think. He was the best hope that they had of a relatively easy win in November.

This evening, in about 20 minutes, I’ll be chatting with Terrence McNally on KPFK Pacifica Radio’s Free Forum with Terrence McNally. I’ll be up between 8:20 and 8:30 PM EST. Sorry for the late notice. Just before me, Tom Hayden — who endorsed Obama today — will be talking about the elections.