FOR THOSE OF YOU IN THE WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA, feel free to join a couple of different meetings I will be attending tomorrow.
At noon tomorrow (Wednesday), I will be speaking in a program with Anatol Lieven offering comments about his new book America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism. Jessica Mathews will be presiding, and the event is taking place at the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace. If you want to go, contact Jennifer Buntman at buntman@newamerica.net or 202-986-4901.
Otherwise the event, can be listened to right over your computer as a “Live at Carnegie” event. Go here to find the event, which will actually start at approximately 12:30 p.m.
I will be saving my commentary on his book for a later post — but if you want to read a beautifully-written, pull-no-punches critique of American foreign policy and a solid off-shore look at new virulent strains of American nationalism, read this book.
Then I have to race to Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland (on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay) to have a late afternoon meeting with Seymour Hersh. Hersh will be speaking at a Goldstein Lecture meeting at Washington College at 7:30 p.m. — and anyone can go.
I will look forward to hearing what Hersh thought about the Pentagon’s attempts to preempt his recent book, Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib.
I will be there for exactly 27 minutes before I go watch the Bush-Kerry debates at 8 p.m. with the College Republicans at Washington College who have organized an event. In order to keep myself from being biased, I either find a way to stay away from all spin — as I did in France during the last presidential debate, or try to watch the debate as if I were a Bush supporter, just to counter my own pro-Kerry bias.
After the debate, I’ll be scribbling an article for UPI, at the request of editor Martin Walker, and then linking the piece to The Washington Note.
If you would like to read my commentary on the last three debates, including the vice presidential debate, here are the links:
First Presidential Debate
Vice Presidential Debate
Second Presidential Debate
I look forward to meeting any of you who can attend the Anatol Lieven or the Seymour Hersh meetings. But most importantly, check in with me here after the debate.
— Steve Clemons
