Newt's finance team quits, Huntsman declares, McCain blames immigrants for Arizona's wildfires,the Debt ceiling talks accelerate, the Washington Post actually printed a story (E.J. Dionne) on Republican efforts at voter suppression for 2012,Governors Scott and Walker cut Medicaid and Medicare without public discussion, Van Jones threatens to sue Fox News and Glenn Beck and NPR actually had a roundtable on cutting the defense budget and pulling back from our commitments abroad.
And that was just a long weekend while I was away. While at a conference in Paris, I met dozens of European parliamentarians from the constructive Left and sane Right, who are just moving on in foreign affairs with little consideration of where the United States is anymore. One MP told me he found Americans now insufferable and blowhards (my word). Others basically see the domestic American scene as far behind global trends and lacking any creative ideas worth emulating. They basically view us now as neo-isolationists in ideas and still unilateralist in action. The Europeans have fully embraced the Arab Spring and at this meeting they were more than gung-ho about supporting it from Libya to Bahrain and beyond. There was none of the usual Gallic cynicism.
Now am off again to see what havoc we have brought on the world. Be back in touch soon.
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