memeorandum: Tiger comments on current events (Tiger Woods)

2:05 PM 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.

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, Riehl World View, Wonk Room and MyDD

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: Taylor Marsh

Gabor Steingart / Spiegel Online:

Searching in Vain for the Obama Magic — Never before has a speech by President Barack Obama felt as false as his Tuesday address announcing America's new strategy for Afghanistan. It seemed like a campaign speech combined with Bush rhetoric — and left both dreamers and realists feeling distraught.

Discussion: The Corner on National …, Power Line, Left Coast Rebel, Fausta's Blog, The New Republic, Indecision Forever, The Greenroom, Outside The Beltway and Gateway Pundit

Fred Kaplan / Slate:
But where does it end? — The war that President Barack Obama laid …

Discussion: The Daily Dish and marbury

Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:
A Disappointing Speech in Support of the Right Policy

Discussion: Power Line, Left in the West, The Huffington Post, Scared Monkeys, Commentary, Betsy's Page, The Moderate Voice, GlobalPost, Althouse, American Power, Donklephant and CNN

New York Times:
Two Messages for Two Sides — WASHINGTON — President Obama went …

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

New York Times:
Text of Secretary Gates's Prepared Testimony

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Caucus, New York Times and The Page

Michael Crowley / The New Republic:
The Day After: A Hollow Withdrawal Pledge Comes Into Focus

Discussion: MoJo Blog Posts, Hot Air and Commentary

Steve Schippert / Washington Times:
Counterinsurgency incoherence — President Obama prefers exit strategy to victory

Discussion: Mudville Gazette, Maggie's Farm and ThreatsWatch

Tristero / Hullabaloo: The Afghan War Gets The Speech It Deserves

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

Discussion: Open Left, The Note, Bloomberg, Lynn Sweet, Commentary, New York Times, Guardian, Politics Daily and ABCNEWS

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

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

Pervez Musharraf / Wall Street Journal:
The Afghan-Pakistan Solution — An exit strategy must …

Discussion: Politics Daily

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

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

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: Silicon Alley Insider, The Market Ticker, The Moderate Voice, The Huffington Post, Mashable!, QandO, SFGate, AmSpecBlog, Hot Air, Left Coast Rebel, Sense of Events, ChattahBox News Blog and Jules Crittenden

ESPN:
Woods: ‘I have let my family down’

Discussion: TalkLeft

Associated Press:
Transcript of Tiger Woods' statement

Discussion: Us Weekly, Times of London and Althouse

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.

Discussion: NPR Blogs

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: Left Coast Rebel, Outside The Beltway, DaTechguy's Blog, Stop The ACLU, The Foundry, Scared Monkeys, JammieWearingFool and NO QUARTER

Rick Karlin / Capitol Confidential:

This just in: Gay marriage on tap in Senate — Senate Democrats have just put out a notice: yes they do plan to debate the same-sex marriage bill — passed again by the Assembly last night — today. — They will vote on the DRP, Tier V pension plan, public authority reform and marriage equality.

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Christian Science Monitor and New York Times

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
New York Senate Set for Gay Marriage Vote

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and TPM LiveWire

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

Scott McLemee / Inside Higher Ed:

Decline of the West — Ten years ago, in the final pages of a collection of his selected writings, Cornel West gave readers a look at the work he had in progress, or at least in mind, for the years ahead. One would be “a major treatment of African-American literature and modern Greek literature.”

Discussion: Ezra Klein and First Thoughts

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

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: The Atlantic Business Channel, Bits, TechCrunch, Post Tech, Mediaite and Mashable!

BBC:
Google to limit free news access

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Chris Good / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

The Cantor Jobs Offensive — President Obama will hold a jobs summit at the White House tomorrow, pulling together economic experts, lawmakers, and business and labor leaders to talk about ways of spurring unemployment, set against a lingering question: will Democrats push for another stimulus package as the solution?

Discussion: The Hill, The Note, Hotline On Call, The Washington Independent and The Foundry

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: Guardian, Hit & Run, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, CBS News, Maggie's Farm and Pajamas Media

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

Discussion: Dean's World

John Koblin / New York Observer:

Watch Out, Times! Murdoch Plans $15 M. N.Y.C. Edition — “Good journalism is an expensive commodity,” said Rupert Murdoch at a Federal Trade Commission conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Dec. 1. — We'll say! — Mr. Murdoch is ready to roll out a budget of $15 million …

Discussion: Michael Calderone's Blog, City Room, Media Decoder, Gawker, Mediaite, At-Largely and Silicon Alley Insider

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, Gawker, The Palmetto Scoop, TechCrunch, Mashable!, GigaOM, Mediaite and The Huffington Post

Jason / The Tolbert Report:

HuckPAC Resignation — As I mentioned this morning, I resigned my position as Arkansas coordinator for HuckPAC today where I served in a volunteer capacity. My departure was with a heavy heart but was done after serious prayer and consideration. Some have asked about the timing.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Human Events, Washington Post and Washington Times

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 …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, TalkLeft, Washington Post, Washington Monthly, USA Today, Michelle Malkin, Reuters, The Confluence, The Hill and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*

Robin Givhan / Washington Post:

Rogers's unwanted new guest: Scrutiny — Social secretary's managerial style faces criticism in wake of her first state dinner — On the night of the Obamas' first state dinner, White House social secretary Desirée Rogers glided past the rope line of press and photographers at 6:53 p.m. …

Discussion: Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Swamp, The New Republic, The Caucus and Reliable Source