A neocon thumbs up

Robert Kagan praises Obama for making the right call on Afghanistan.

Forward looks back at Chas Freeman story

Freeman spoke with the Forward newspaper and changes his claim about the “Israel Lobby.” He says he should have referred to this group as the “Lieberman Lobby.”

Obama’s plan for Afghanistan

Here’s my radio story from Friday that I forgot to post.

So, is it a winner? Depends on who you ask. Some early reaction to the plan here.

BTW, here’s the plan, via Abu Muqawama.

Winning Afghanistan starts in Pakistan

“The situation is increasingly perilous,” Obama said about Afghanistan this morning. Interesting that he also said, “let me start with Pakistan.”

This is a change.

Obama said it’s key to recognize the connection between Pakistan and Afghanistan. And that’s why he’s appointed Richard Holbrooke as special envoy for the two countries.

On Pakistan itself, Obama emphasizes using all elements of American power and influence to help the country succeed. “A campaign against extremism will not succeed with bullets and bombs alone,” he said. And he called on Congress to pass legislation that offers economic assistance to Pakistan.

Times are tough at home, but Obama this “is a downpayment on our own future.”

Here’s the whole speech.  //21:45

Geithner’s long-term plan

Tim Geithner went back to Capital Hill today to begin to lay out the Obama administration’s long-term plan for remaking the financial regulatory system.

Back to the future

I spoke again with economist Ken Rogoff at Harvard today about Geithner’s plan for overhauling the financial system. Rogoff has been critical of the Obama administration’s moves to deal with the financial crisis. But he’s generally supportive of this move by Geithner and Team Obama. Rogoff says these proposals should have come sooner and there are lots of details to work out. However, he welcomes what the Treasury Secretary began to do today.

This week’s global political cartoons

Lots of condoms.

Obama’s G20 hurdle

Barack Obama heads to London next week for the G20 summit. He will deliver a message to the leaders of the largest economies in the world to take bold, coordinated action. And he will face resistance.

Prof. in Chief

The Times nails the tone of last night’s news conference with Obama, with this description:

“Barack Obama the lecturer, a familiar character from early in the campaign. Placid and unsmiling, he was the professor in chief, offering familiar arguments in long paragraphs — often introduced with the phrase, “as I said before” — sounding like the teacher speaking in the stillness of a classroom where students are restlessly waiting for the ring of the bell.”

Obama’s theme of the evening was persistence. He used the word during his final answer. The question was from an AFP reporter about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Obama drew a parallel with the peace process in Northern Ireland and said:

“And what that tells me is that, if you stick to it, if you are persistent, then — then these problems can be dealt with.

That whole philosophy of persistence, by the way, is one that I’m going to be emphasizing again and again in the months and years to come as long as I’m in this office. I’m a big believer in persistence.

I think that, when it comes to domestic affairs, if we keep on working at it, if we acknowledge that we make mistakes sometimes, and that we don’t always have the right answer, and we’re inheriting very knotty problems, that we can pass health care, we can find better solutions to our energy challenges, we can teach our children more effectively, we can deal with a very real budget crisis that is not fully dealt with in my — in my budget at this point, but makes progress.”

As far as I could tell, there were no leap-from-the-foul-line slam dunk moments during the hour-long (on the dot) event. But the one-liner that sticks with me came when CNN’s Ed Henry pushed for a second follow-up. Here’s the transcript:

QUESTION: But on AIG, why did you wait — why did you wait days to come out and express that outrage? It seems like the action is coming out of New York and the attorney general’s office. It took you days to come public with Secretary Geithner and say, “Look, we’re outraged.” Why did it take so long?

OBAMA: It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.

(LAUGHTER)

Who do you think Obama had in mind when he delivered that one?

Will Geithner’s plan work?

Interesting back and forth here with three economist-types. Paul Krugman says the Geithner plan is doomed. Simon Johnson says it might work, but probably won’t. Brad DeLong offers the heartiest support for the plan, but mostly on political grounds not economic. Mark Thoma says the plan needs to work fast, or it needs to be put down. One thing that strikes me is that they all appear to be ready for this thing to fall way short of actually fixing the banking problem in the long run. So then what… nationalization here we come?