memeorandum: Obama's Afghan policy speech at West Point (Washington Post)

11:55 AM ET, December 2, 2009

Top Items:

Obama's Afghan policy speech at West Point — Following is the transcript of President Obama's speech Tuesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. (The Post's report on the president's address is here.) — Thank you. Please be seated. — Good evening.

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

This I Believe — Let me start with the bottom line and then tell you how I got there: I can't agree with President Obama's decision to escalate in Afghanistan. I'd prefer a minimalist approach, working with tribal leaders the way we did to overthrow the Taliban regime in the first place.

Discussion: Michael Calderone's Blog

Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:

A Disappointing Speech in Support of the Right Policy — President Obama's speech on Afghanistan was disappointing. Yes, the policy is right: more troops, a counter-insurgency strategy, a stronger alliance with Pakistan. But the personal commitment of the president to pursue the war …

Discussion: Commentary, Hot Air, The Huffington Post, CNN, Scared Monkeys, American Power and Donklephant

New York Times:

Two Messages for Two Sides — WASHINGTON — President Obama went before the nation on Tuesday night to announce that he would escalate the war in Afghanistan. And Mr. Obama went before the nation to announce that he had a plan to end the war in Afghanistan.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, Wall Street Journal, NY Daily News, Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, NPR Blogs, Prairie Weather and Neptunus Lex

Gabor Steingart / Spiegel Online:
Searching in Vain for the Obama Magic

Discussion: The Greenroom, Outside The Beltway, Gateway Pundit and The New Republic

Peter Wehner / Commentary:
A Fighting Chance — The decision President Obama made was better …

Discussion: Power Line, Washington Wire, Ross Douthat and The Corner on National …

Paul / Power Line:
What I heard tonight — Earlier today I wondered whether …

Discussion: The Washington Independent, Wake up America, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit, The Jawa Report and The Moderate Voice

David Ignatius / Washington Post:
Surge in Afghanistan, then leave

Discussion: Think Progress, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Huffington Post, New York Times, Guardian, American Prospect, PostPartisan, The Corner on National …, The Fix and Washington Monthly

Kevin Drum / MoJo Blog Posts:
A Technocratic Speech — I didn't hear Obama's Afghanistan speech …

Discussion: Firedoglake, American Prospect, Washington Monthly and Daniel W. Drezner

John Dickerson / Slate:
Obama's Afghanistan speech was confusing.

Discussion: The Politico, Lynn Sweet, Bloomberg, New York Times, Commentary, Guardian and Politics Daily

the Medium Lobster / Fafblog:
Victory Science — Let us never forget just what's at stake …

Discussion: Unfogged

Huma Khan / ABCNEWS:
McCain:Obama's Timeline for Withdrawal will ‘Embolden Enemies’

Discussion: The Swamp, The Foundry and Political Punch

New York Times:
Obama Adds Troops, but Maps Exit Plan

Discussion: The Caucus, Los Angeles Times, Chris Floyd, Wonk Room, Democracy in America, The Huffington Post, marbury, Althouse, Gawker, The Note, ABCNEWS, Tom Watson, DownWithTyranny!, The Politico, Towleroad News #gay, Washington Post, CNN and Jason Chaffetz

Tiger Woods:

Tiger comments on current events — I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family.

Discussion: Mashable!, AmSpecBlog, ChattahBox News Blog, Mediaite, Sense of Events, Telegraph, NPR Blogs and Gawker

Associated Press:
Transcript of Tiger Woods' statement

Discussion: Althouse and The Other McCain

Jeff Poor / NewsBusters.org:

Matthews Calls West Point, Site of Obama Speech ‘The Enemy Camp,’ ‘Strange Venue’ — Either MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews let one slip tonight, or it was an extremely poor choice of words. — Following President Barack Obama's Dec. 1 speech, which he announced his intentions …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Outside The Beltway, Stop The ACLU, The Foundry, DaTechguy's Blog, JammieWearingFool, Erick's blog and Another Black Conservative

Heather / Crooks and Liars:

Matthews on Obama's Speech at West Point: He ‘Went to Maybe the Enemy Camp Tonight’ — Chris Matthews with possibly the stupidest comment of the night after Obama's speech at West Point. A military installation is “the enemy camp” Chris? Unbelievable. … Matthews was already back tracking a bit later in the evening.

CNN:

McCain challenges Obama in private meeting — Washington (CNN) - Hours before he was set to address the nation on his new Afghanistan strategy, President Obama and members of his war council spent about an hour briefing senior members of Congress at a White House meeting that multiple sources described as businesslike and sobering.

Discussion: The Hill, Wonk Room, MyDD and Riehl World View

Ronald Bailey / Reason:

The Scientific Tragedy of Climategate — Can climate change science recover from the damage done by leaked emails? — Climategate. What a hot mess. Researchers at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia and their colleagues around the globe may have fiddled …

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, CBS News, Maggie's Farm, Pajamas Media and Hot Air

Megan McArdle:
Climategate III: The Mystery of the Missing Data

Discussion: pipeline.corante.com and Dean's World

New York Post:
No data = no science

Discussion: The New Republic

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

THERE ARE 39 OTHER GOP SENATORS.... NBC News announced the line-up for this week's “Meet the Press.” Take a wild guess who'll be on. … I especially loved the “Exclusive!” with the exclamation point, as if this were a rare, special occurrence. — For those keeping score at home …

Discussion: msnbc.com and No More Mister Nice Blog

BBC:

Google to limit free news access — Newspaper publishers will now be able to set a limit on the number of free news articles people can read through Google, the company has announced. — The concession follows claims from some media companies that the search engine is profiting from online news pages.

Josh Cohen / Google News Blog:
Google and paid content

Discussion: The Atlantic Business Channel, Bits, Post Tech, Mediaite, TechCrunch, Mashable! and Riehl World View

Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook Blog:

An Open Letter from Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg — It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online. — To make this possible …

Discussion: Telegraph, TechCrunch, Mediaite, Mashable!, GigaOM and The Huffington Post

Jim Kuhnhenn / Associated Press:

House banking panel set for final regulations vote — WASHINGTON — House lawmakers are ready to clear a significant hurdle in their drive to slap new financial restraints on big Wall Street institutions and to demand greater openness from the nation's central bank.

Discussion: The Page

Victoria McGrane / The Politico:
Bernanke hearing brings Fed critics

Discussion: The Page

Brad / Think Progress:

Lou Dobbs Explodes: ‘Who The Hell Does This President Think He Is!?!’ — Birther Lou Dobbs and climate denier Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) are concerned that President Barack Obama is trying to turn America into a monarchy. Appearing on Dobbs' radio show on Tuesday, Inhofe argued President Obama …

Discussion: The Atlantic Politics Channel and Wonk Room

The Hill:

Reid set to unveil new public option, breaking Senate impasse on healthcare — A new measure on the public option will be unveiled next week, which Senate Democratic leaders hope will break the logjam on healthcare reform. — Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who has been tapped by Majority Leader Harry Reid …