Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger published a piece in today’s Washington Post on the eventual American withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan.  His advice? Slow down and do it right. Or, rather, slow down and do it as well as possible. Kissinger, whose writing I find impenetrable at times, is crystal clear in his op-ed today. He spells out the […]

Several years ago my brother Gerry half-jokingly relayed what his first words would be if he learned that one of his siblings or close friends had, for some crazy reason, killed someone. “I’ll bring the saw; you get the acid,” he said. I liked that response.  It’s what I would expect from a brother or […]

http://youtu.be/l2vdvzMSKS8 This may be the best ad of President Jimmy Carter’s unsuccessful 1980 re-election bid. From the distinct accents of the characters, one can only imagine that this targeted New England seniors. What I find most remarkable about this ad, though, is just how well it would fit into President Obama’s messaging today. Listen to the copy: […]

President Obama’s bin Laden bounce in the polls is now completely gone.  That has been reported.  But it’s still interesting to see how recent events have manifested themselves in the InTrade Market, the Irish-based stock market for political predictions.  InTrade is where people wager real money on events of the day.  The odds of Anthony […]

“I have not seen a city in this bad a shape since I went to East Berlin in 1969.” –GM CEO Dan Akerson in the Detroit News today.

A former business partner finished a thought for me over lunch yesterday, a not unusual occurrence when we get together. (Spend 10 years in a small office with someone and residual mind meld is inescapable.) It was about the gay marriage issue in New York — whether there is some middle ground where a large […]

http://youtu.be/MxYDTTNYMic You can’t get more basic than this. Television as a political medium was obviously very new here. I assume this was an attempt to target women with whom Eisenhower was very popular.  Then again, Ike was very popular with everyone that year.  

  http://youtu.be/7E4GC1fUC7k   Congressman Weiner (D-NY) just took full responsibility for his actions to a room full of reporters in what became known as Weinergate.  He apologized for having lied and for covering up his actions.  It must have been excruciatingly difficult to come clean after all this time, and Weiner deserves credit for doing it. He […]

It appears that Congressman Weiner may now be in real trouble — the type that could result in his resignation. This BigGovernment.com report –with photographs — will be difficult for him to recover from.  If more explicit photos come out next — and they reportedly exist — it’s over. There goes another promising career, and […]

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