Well, they didn’t wait until the last minute to pass this thing, and thank god for that. The last thing Bush needed was not getting this agreement in place and having to deal with troops being in Iraq illegally.
From MSNBC:
BAGHDAD – Iraq’s Cabinet on Sunday approved a security pact with the United States that will [...]

Yes, once again, Bill gets in the way…
From This Week:
But there’s one significant complication: how to make sure that former President Clinton’s foreign speeches, business dealings and foundation work don’t present conflicts of interest. [...]
Here are some of the major questions that need to be addressed: How much public disclosure must there be of past [...]

Truth be told, Richardson is more qualified for the job, but having Hillary in there would be the most beneficial for an Obama administration.
And let’s face it, I’d rather have Hillary as our face to the world right now than Bill Richardson.
The details…
CNN has learned that President-elect Barack Obama spoke with New Mexico Gov. [...]

Well, now we know that Obama actually asked her…
“There was a serious discussion to determine whether, if offered Secretary of State, she would accept it,” said a source close to the Obama transition.
In these circumstances, that source added, a president-elect does not meet with potential cabinet secretaries unless they are serious about making an offer.
Another [...]

I speculated about this earlier today, and Marc Ambinder has some thoughts today.
Here’s the one I think is the most prescient:
6. The CW in Washington is that Obama wants Clinton in his cabinet more than Clinton wants to be in the cabinet, the theory being that the moment she steps into the administration, she [...]

These are the reports I’m hearing and neither the Clinton folks nor the Obama folks are denying it…which is a sure sign that this is on the table.
Ben Smith details…
Andrea Mitchell reported this evening that Obama is considering Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, something that’s been buzzed about as a possibility for a few [...]

Well, I got duped. But then again, so did MSNBC.
And not only that, Martin Eisenstadt does it in the blogosphere.
How very Smear 2.0 of him…
As you know, I was one of the foreign policy advisers on the McCain campaign who worked with Randy Scheunemann to help prep Sarah on her debate with Joe Biden.
Did [...]

Looks like Barack Obama is hitting the ground running:
After making the first key appointment to his administration, Obama spoke by telephone with the leaders of Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico and South Korea, hastening the shift in political gravity away from President George W. Bush.
The financial crisis, the Afghanistan war, climate change [...]

One of the most important appointments Barack Obama will make is Secretary of State. Naturally, rumors are swirling as to who might be on the shortlist. Let’s look at the contenders.
Richard Holbrooke: A Clinton State Department veteran who also served as U.N. ambassador, Holbrooke would be the establishment choice. He’d be a competent secretary but [...]

A lot of people were buzzing about Eagleburger’s comments about Palin yesterday, and today he’s actually claiming that the statements were in the wrong context.
However, that’s not the story here. Of course Eagleburger was going to try this. But the degree to which Fox helped him do it is pretty remarkable.
Around minute 2:20 in the [...]

No sooner did I write this post about the two memes I think will be the Republicans’ bread and butter for the next four years, than I see this editorial from UK’s The Spectator.
Melanie Phillips attempts to make the “America Is Losing Its Superpower Status” argument against Obama…
The impact of the financial crisis on the [...]

Joe Biden had been doing well on the campaign trail. But yesterday he made some odd comments which John McCain is jumping all over.
Here’s what Biden said:
Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy … The world is watching. We’re about to elect [...]

At this point, it’s looking to be Obama. Because apparently McCain hasn’t been in touch with Powell for months!
Now, that doesn’t mean Powell will necessarily give a standard endorsement on MTP tomorrow. And honestly, this would fit with his demeanor. But saying something like, “I think we need a change” would be all he would [...]

Maybe the axis of evil is down to just one member. Reports indicate that the U.S. will remove North Korea from the “state sponsors of terrorism” list. The move would come in exchange for North Korea agreeing to permit inspections of its nuclear facilities. No official deal has been announced as the State Department is [...]

There are four weeks until the election and I’m still not 100% sure who I will vote for.
While I hope that my posts over the last month have made clear my respect for and problems with both candidates, I thought I’d take a moment to update the regular readers on where I stand.
I’ve [...]

She got the name of the top general in Afghanistan wrong. It’s actually “McKiernan.”
That can’t be good for people who think she’s inexperienced.

Also, it turns out she was just plain wrong when she claimed he didn’t say an Iraq style surge didn’t work.
And I quote…
“Afghanistan is not Iraq,” said Gen. David McKiernan, who led [...]

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Apparently it has to do with her knowledge of Supreme Court decisions…
Of concern to McCain’s campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin’s interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.
The Palin aide, after first noting how “infuriating” it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about the gaffe, [...]

Yes, they went there.

But hey, you can’t say we didn’t warn Palin. I railed against that idiotic “Russia/Alaska” assertion from day one, but the McCain camp continued to push it. And so they have to deal with copious amounts of ridicule and scorn. Not just because the point itself was dumb, but also because Palin [...]

I thought Obama was better than McCain on the economy because that first 20 minutes for McCain simply wasn’t good. He was shaky, uncertain and didn’t really convince anybody he had a good command on the topic. Also, Obama certainly made the case that McCain was tied to the failures of Bush’s economic policy, and [...]