News Nuggets 260

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I will be away until next Wednesday.

In His Slow Decision-Making, Obama Goes with Head, Not Gut (Joel Achenbach) from the Washington Post

"President George W. Bush once boasted, "I'm not a textbook player, I'm a gut player." The new tenant of the Oval Office takes a strikingly different approach. President Obama is almost defiantly deliberative, methodical and measured, even when critics accuse him of dithering. When describing his executive style, he goes into Spock mode, saying, ... Obama's handling of the Afghanistan conundrum has been a spectacle of deliberation unlike anything seen in the White House in recent memory."

Obama's Mistakes: Way Too Early to Judge (Joe Klein) from Time Magazine

Our ON-THE-MONEY pundit of the day!

"Oh, I could sling opinions about every one of the events cited above — some were unfortunate — but it would matter only if I could discern a pattern that illuminates Obama's presidency. The most obvious pattern, however, is the media's tendency to get overwrought about almost anything."

Surge Targets Taliban Targets from the Wall Street Journal

"Commanders in Afghanistan say they will devote the majority of the fresh troops expected from the White House to securing the country's troubled south and will especially target this volatile city, the Taliban's main power base."

The Feeling's Mutual (Editorial) from the Times of India [in English]

"tMost Americans do believe that the US has an abiding interest in India's gradual but steady rise as an economic and diplomatic power. Asia is too important to be left to a single country to exercise hegemony, as the recent Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Thailand also acknowledged."

Obama to Go to Copenhagen with Pledge of Emissions Cuts from the New York Times

"President Obama is pledging a provisional target for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, the first time in more than a decade that an American administration has offered even a tentative promise to reduce production of climate-altering gases, the White House announced on Wednesday."

I'm Thankful I'm Not President Obama (Joan Walsh) from Salon

"Backers deride Katrina-style negligence, haters hate him more each day. Can this presidency be saved? Of course."

GOP Purity Test Would Have Banished Bush, Reagan from Raw Story

"A new GOP "purity test" named for Ronald Reagan moves the line even farther to the right, and a liberal website has found that the test -- if used in the past -- would have screened out President Ronald Reagan and President George W. Bush as viable conservatives."

India Basks in White House Welcome from the Associated Press

"When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met in Washington this week with President Barack Obama, the White House lavished attention on the unassuming, bookish Indian leader. There was a state dinner. ... It was Washington's way of telling the world's largest democracy that it matters — despite America's ties to India's main rivals, Pakistan and China."

HISTORY NUGGET!!

Sarah Palin, Worst Veep Pick Ever? Not So Fast. (Matthew Cooper) from the Atlantic

if you think about the vice presidential selections since World War II began, is Sarah Palin even the worst? A quick review of contenders.

A 'LIGHTER SIDE' NUGGET!

Modern Flourishes at Obama's State Dinner from the New York Times

This event looks like it was a lot of fun!

"It is an old tradition, a White House dinner governed by ritual and protocol that happens to be this city’s hottest social event. But at their first state dinner on Tuesday night, President Obama and his wife, Michelle, made sure to infuse the glittering gala with distinctive touches."

CULTURE NUGGET!!

Burma Journal: Curiosity and Hope in the Land of the Lost from Politics Journal

"They say that Venice is sinking, but really, when you arrive in Rangoon, it becomes clear that if any place is slowly edging deeper into the earth, it's this one. "