memeorandum: Democrat Roy Herron dropping out of Tennessee governor's race to run for Congress (Erik Schelzig/Associated Press)

10:30 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, Scared Monkeys and American Power

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

Paul / Power Line:

What I heard tonight — Earlier today I wondered whether President Obama's speech about Afghanistan would sound more like a description of a war plan or a structured settlement of a legal dispute. What I heard tonight tilted decidedly in the latter direction.

Discussion: CNN, Gateway Pundit, The Jawa Report, The Moderate Voice and Hot Air

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

Discussion: The Swamp, Political Punch and The Foundry

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

Discussion: The Atlantic Politics Channel, New York Times, PostPartisan, The Corner on National …, The Fix, The Washington Independent, Washington Monthly and Newsweek Blogs

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

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

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Lunch With The President: The Politics Of Obama's War Plan

Discussion: The Note, The Daily Dish and Michael Calderone's Blog

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

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

Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:
Obama Announces 30K More Troops for Afghanistan

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Huffington Post, Matthew Yglesias, Guardian and ATTACKERMAN

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Live-Blogging West Point

Discussion: AMERICAblog News, Taegan Goddard's …, The Politico, Politics Daily, Taylor Marsh and Opinionator

Jesse Lee / White House.gov Blog Feed:
The New Way Forward - The President's Address

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, ChattahBox News Blog, Indecision Forever, Clive Crook, BLACKFIVE, SWJ Blog and Michelle Malkin

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

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

Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blog:
Obama lunches with top political writers

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative

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

William Kristol / PostPartisan:
A war president — In his Monday open letter/cri de coeur …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The White House, Hot Air, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Gateway Pundit and Don Surber

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Obama Approval on Afghanistan, at 35%, Trails Other Issues

Discussion: Top of the Ticket, Don Surber, The Hill, Commentary, Politics Daily and NPR Blogs

Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:
McChrystal Praises Obama, Strategy Review

Discussion: Hot Air, The Strata-Sphere, Jules Crittenden, TPMDC, ATTACKERMAN and Ben Smith's Blog

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: Outside The Beltway, The Foundry, Scared Monkeys, Stop The ACLU, 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.

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: CBS News, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, 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

Josh Cohen / Google News Blog:

Google and paid content — As newspapers consider charging for access to their online content, some publishers have asked: Should we put up pay walls or keep our articles in Google News and Google Search? In fact, they can do both - the two aren't mutually exclusive.

Discussion: Post Tech, Bits, Mediaite, TechCrunch, Mashable! and Riehl World View

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.

Hotline On Call:

Tanner To Retire — Rep. John Tanner (D-TN), a leading Blue Dog Dem, will retire at the end of his current term, Dem sources tell Hotline OnCall. — [UPDATE: Tanner released a statement late tonight confirming the news. “Betty Ann and I had considered retiring in 2007 at the end of the 110th Congress …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, The Greenroom, The Fix, Swing State Project, RedState and MyDD

The Politico:
Blue Dog Tanner to retire from House

Discussion: Think Progress, The Hill, Scorecard's Blog and The Moderate Voice

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

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, The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, GigaOM and Mashable!