The Guardian (London)

The razor-thin margin separating the contenders for the Democratic nomination grew even thinner at the weekend. Why is this battle so close? A simple reason is that, despite the occasional invective, Americans genuinely admire both the charismatic Barack Obama and the fiercely resilient Hillary Clinton. When John McCain is thrown into the mix, we have the greatest reality show ever, an epic clash of survivalists. It is a shame Sergio Leone is not here to direct the final scene. But… more

U.S. budget gap set to climb steeply this year (The Guardian) ... Referring to the prospects of growing budget deficits this year, Maya MacGuineas, head of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said, "Every billion is a big deal."

Different Clinton, More Painful Bill (Guardian Unlimited - UK) Flynt Leverett says in the U.S. magazine National Interest that the U.S. should be seriously concerned about this so-called "axis of oil" because it has the potential to exert the same sort of financial and monetary pressure on the U.S. as Washington put on Britain and France in 1956. "Half a century after Suez, there is growing potential for a coalition of major energy exporters - disproportionately… more

This is the most important election of our lifetime (Guardian Unlimited - UK) The astute analyst and writer Mark Schmitt was the first to identify this phenomenon, naming the Democratic race the "theory of change" primary. ...

In the Democratic presidential scuffle over extricating the U.S. from Iraq, differences among the candidates have faded into the background recently. But the rivals are diverging on an equally incendiary foreign policy issue: the political instability in Pakistan.

The party's White House hopefuls moved swiftly to condemn Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf after he suspended the constitution and imposed emergency rule on November 3. Since taking early shots at the Bush administration over the crisis, however, the Democrats each have carved out… more

Critics of the Iraq war have called it George Bush’s Vietnam. Now, it appears, President Bush himself agrees. In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars last week, the president sought to increase support for his policy by drawing parallels between the consequences of the US departure from Indochina in the mid-1970s and possible consequences of a US withdrawal from Iraq. In Vietnam, the president stated, "the price of America’s withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens, whose… more

...Russia held wargames last week in the Urals involving troops from Russia and China and four central Asian states. Moscow has infuriated Georgia after a Russian missile landed on the outskirts of its capital, Tbilisi. Much of the military posturing is for internal consumption, ahead of parliamentary elections in December and a presidential poll in spring. Pictures showing a shirtless Mr Putin on a fishing trip have been a source of national pride.

The U.S. appears relaxed about this… more

In Japan (and the US perhaps), embarrassment and shame are so, well, 20th century. In the old days, a hot financial scandal or political defeat would lead at minimum to resignation -- and occasionally, to far worse self-inflicted circumstances, such as ritual suicide.

But none of that for Japan’s embattled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has accepted responsibility but refused to resign for the collapse of his government coalition’s standing in the upper house of Japan’s National Diet in last Sunday’s… more

Can anything good possibly come out of President Bush’s Middle East speech earlier this week and the flurry of diplomatic activity that will come in its wake beginning today with the Quartet meeting in Lisbon, Portugal?

First of all, let’s be clear. The speech represented more of the same failed policies with even less chance of success. Anyone who thinks that the new speech was a constructive contribution should read an op-ed by Michael Oren in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal… more

Pundits have had fun poking at the Bush-Blair concoction that the outgoing prime minister be reinvented through solving one of the world’s seemingly insoluble conflicts. Bush has proposed that Blair represent the "Quartet" -- composed of the UN, the US, Russia and the European Union -- in attempts to secure Israeli-Palestinian peace, with an official announcement coming tomorrow.

I happen to think that Colin Powell would be a better envoy, or James Baker, or Tom Daschle, or Bill Clinton, or maybe… more