redblueamerica.com

I think Obama's speech before an adoring 200,000 people in Berlin was a brilliant move that offers many rewards for his campaign.  He looked Presidential and he said all the right things for a Europe that has clearly been skeptical of America for a long time (and not only since President George W. Bush came into office).However, for all of his talk about cooperation and the beautiful past of our relations with Europe, he should keep several things in mind.

Gary Hart, former Democratic candidate for President in 1984, is actually a rather good writer and this article is a perspective that I think is gaining currency.  I also think he may be right.  We are now ready for a liberal revival unlike any since the rise of FDR.   

I posted this awhile back on my blog, www.gregrlawson.com

It seems to me that the great challenges America faces is the threat of a WMD attack on a major American city that would result in thousands if not tens of thousands of casualties (not to mention intense psychological dislocation) as well as the looming entitlement spending crisis exacerbated by our aging population. One is a threat from external actors we must defend against at all costs, the other is a threat from our own internal inability to confront reality. The implications of either one happening at once (or, Heaven forbid, happening simultaneously) will only speed the rise of Asia.

A tremendous in-depth look at the skepticism raging on both the left and right regarding America's post Bush foreign policy. The article attempts to conceptualize what a true, value free foreign policy would look like and it is not pretty. You really have to read the entire piece and ask yourself what is America's role and responsibility in the world and how does it accomplish this if not by embracing its values?
http://www.hoover.org/publications/polic...

I admire John McCain and should Fred Thompson (whom I support)lose in SC and be ushered out of the race I will support the Arizona Senator. However, I think it is a shame Thompson has been so dinged by the national media, because in most respects, he really has the largest vision of any GOP candidate running as this piece from the American Thinker ably articulates (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/article...).

This is a potentially important item to review, the relatively new phenomenon of "Sovereign Wealth Funds" or large pools of capital owned by foreign governments (many oil producers) that then seek return for their excess capital and invest in other nations. This is of note given the recent information about Citigroup and Merril Lynch being "rescued" by foreign dollards flowing in from places such as Singapore, Kuwait and South Korea.

This will probably result in a backlash, though the reality, in terms of impact is murky and unknown.

From Pat Buchanan's American Conservative, a good article discussing the outlines of the debate within the foreign policy establishment at the end of the Cold War. Obviously, for the author (and the American Conservative in general), it is the intervionism of the 90s and the unwillingness to scale back our military and other geopolitical committments that has led us inexorably to "empire."

Also from my blog, www.gregrlawson.com

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20080101fa...