What has Obama got against the PlayStation? The Blackberry-loving US President has struck a fogey-ish tone in his misguided pronouncement about technology, says Shane Richmond.    

  Does Obama Have the Backbone?
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
 Barack Obama's trip to Copenhagen to pitch Chicago for the Olympics would have been a dumb move whatever the outcome. But as it turned out (an airy dismissal would not be an unfair description), it poses some questions about his presidency that are way more important than the proper venue for synchronized swimming. The first, and to my mind most important, is whether Obama knows who he is. This business of self-knowledge is no minor issue. It bears greatly on the single most crucial issue facing this young and untested president: Afghanistan. Already, we have his choice for Afghanistan commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, taking the measure of his commander in chief and publicly telling him what to do. This MacArthuresque star turn called for a Trumanesque response, but Obama offered nothing of the kind. Instead, he used McChrystal as a prop, adding a bit of four-star gravitas to that silly trip to Copenhagen by having the general meet with him there. This is the president we now have: He inspires lots of affection but not a lot of awe. It is the latter, though, that matters most in international affairs, where the greatest and most gut-wrenching tests await Obama. If he remains consistent to his rhetoric of just seven weeks ago, he will send more troops to Afghanistan and more of them will die. "This is not a war of choice," he said. "This is a war of necessity. Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al-Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans." Obama could have gone…

  Kamran Jebreili/Associated Press Economy Dominates Iranian Election By ROBERT F. WORTH The candidates have sharply different views of how the economy has fared under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Above, a rally for Mir Hussein Mousavi.      

  Palin rides the 'birther' bandwagonWhy bother tackling America's real problems when you can stoke paranoid delusions over Obama's birth certificate?Comments (129)  Jennifer Abel guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 8 December 2009 Article historySarah Palin: ignoring actual issues. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP Sarah Palin couldn't leave well enough alone, could she? Just when I started hoping Orly Taitz and her factually challenged followers were fading from public memory, the Mooseburger Barbie added her lumbering mass to the "birther" bandwagon momentum. On the Rusty Humphries show last week, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate said of the quasi-controversy surrounding Obama's birth certificate: "I think the public rightly is still making it an issue … I think it's a fair question just like I think past associations and past voting records."Such idiocy isn't unique to Palin or even the right wing; it's a symptom of a more serious illness infecting America's body politic. Too many people on both ends of the political spectrum ignore actual issues to focus on conspiratorial jackassery. Bush and Cheney spent eight years shredding the constitution, yet their main detractors ignored this to weave a vast conspiracy wherein Osama bin Laden brought down the World Trade Centre on Bush's orders so the latter could invade Iraq after stupidly planting fake evidence implicating not Iraqis but Saudi Arabians. Then Obama ran for president on promises to repair Bush's constitutional damage, got elected, and continued his predecessor's worst offences while piling on more of his own. So what's his opposition doing? Blathering over birth certificates and his middle name: Barack HUSSEIN Obama.Why do my compatriots ignore our country's real problems to fight vapours instead? It's not just the presidential conspiracies: there's the obsession with…

 
What Does Broadcast News Do Right?
  "Still, the big three evening broadcasts continue to attract 20 million viewers a night. What has network news done right in the face of 24-hour news outlets on cable and the Web? How well is it staving off decline?"