I hope you get all or most of that $1.99 that Amazon charges to read the Washington Note on a Kindle. By the way, the Washington Note is worth ten times that.

An interesting speech given by Joe Biden in Munich. It's not what most Obama supporters probably expected; it was quite hawkish and reprised many of the themes articulated by the Bush Administration.

According to the New York Times,

1) Biden "rejected the notion of a Russian sphere of influence, promising that America’s new government under President Obama would continue to press NATO to seek “deeper cooperation” with like-minded countries."

2) Biden said the Obama administration would continue to pursue a planned missile-defense system that has angered the Kremlin.

3) The Vice President said 'we will be willing to talk to Iran,” in a departure from the Bush administration. But Mr. Biden quickly tacked back to a refrain common during the last years of the Bush presidency, and spoke of offering Iran’s leader a choice: "continue down your current course and there will be pressure and isolation; abandon the illicit nuclear program and support for terrorism and there will be meaningful incentives.”

4) Biden insisted the United States will not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states.

5) Any chance for a rapprochement between Washington and Russia all but evaporated, foreign policy experts said, after Obama administration officials concluded that Russia pressed Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet Republic, to close the American base in that country.

According to the Jersualem Post, Biden repeated the comment that Hillary Clinton has made at least twice since she became Secretary of State; he said the United States would not have any contact with Hamas until it renounced violence, recognized Israel and accepted all prior agreements negotiated by the Palestinian Authority.

So the stimulus bill contains $350 billion of tax cuts and the Administration's new foreign policy seems to be at least somewhat similar to the foreign policy articulated by the previous administration.

When does the change part start?

Biden speech in Munich. Same old same old; boogeyman Iran. Trot out the hard line.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/washington/08biden.html?hp

And the same old demonizing Russia, build the missle "shield", blah, blah, blah . . .

I realize it's early days, and Obama is expecting to be "tested". But this continuity of American swaggering rhetoric is so sickeningly old.

In case Biden didn't get the memo, there is a depression underway in the US, and to exempt DOD from the axe simply to bolster America the world "policeman", shows they're out of touch.

Does anyone else think Biden may be playing bad-cop to get Putin's attention? Then Obama can be good cop and push his nuke-reduction ideas?

Maybe I'm too bullish on the new admin? Not too impressed on the stimulus bill so far, gotta hope they get their act in order soon.

Tim