Can Obama Do More by Doing Less with Climate Change?

Copenhagen sets the stage for the president to reveal his surprising new gamesmanship for tough times: kill the world with kindness, then save the world by asking for help. Find out why America doesn't have to fix everything by itself anymore

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Is Obama's Afghanistan Strategy Ripping Off America?

He can't really fix a country with 30,000 troops because he can't really afford any more. So why is the rest of the world gaining from our taxpayer dollars and spilled blood?

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Seven Reasons to Give Thanks That the World Didn't End This Year

David Hughes

Economic meltdown? Social anarchy? World War III? Go humbug yourself. Our foreign-policy analyst looks back on the 2009 fears that weren't, so we can all count our global blessings this holiday season.

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What Obama Won't Say on His Trip to China

Chuck Kennedy/White House

Think he lost some pull in the health-care debate? Try heading East with a sinking dollar in your pocket. Inside Washington's tip-toe game with an equally nervous Beijing.

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Obama vs. the World: A Checkup on 10 Global Hot Spots

Pete Souza/White House

One year ago, he rode to victory largely on the promise of healing America's standing in the eyes of Bush-torn foreigners. But has he? The fourth in a week-long series on Obama's election anniversary.

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A Military Expert's Preview of This Week's Biggest NFL Battle

One very bitter national-security analyst (and Packers season ticket holder) looks back at the Civil War for some perspective on Brett Favre's first trip back to Lambeau Field

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So Iran Caved on the Bomb. What Now?

Nuclear talks in Vienna appear to have put a hold on Tehran's enrichment program, but don't expect any pulled punches in the Middle East. A preview of what's at stake for the U.S., Iran, and the elephant in the negotiating room during the year of living not-as-dangerously.

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Why Joe Biden's War Plan Spells the Re-Birth of Al Qaeda

Photo: Newscom

Because you can chase the pests out of Afghanistan and into Pakistan all you want, but unless Obama really wants to clean up the world's most decrepit apartment, the parasites are just going to come back. A call for continued nation-building.

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The Real Trouble with Afghanistan and Obama

2009 Black Star/Newscom (Obama)

Underneath all this week's he-said/she-said over the war's future lies a self-inflicted wound: Our young president has lost sight of what matters in the military conflict that will define him, and lost sight of it to another Boomer-era vice president's guilty conscience.

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10 Reasons Why Sanctions on Iran Won't Work

SIPA via Newscom

Team Ahmadinejad may walk out of Thursday's diplomatic showdown in Geneva with a slap on the wrist, but Tehran will almost certainly keep the upper hand. A few important reminders for Obama and Co. on the impotent politics of ganging up on a nuclear rebel right now.

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Already a must read at Real Clear Politics

Can Obama Save the Global Economy (and Globalization) at the G-20?

After a tepid U.N. Week, the White House takes to Pittsburgh with a humble plan: convince China and the rest of the world that we'll stop consuming enough to take them down with us one more time.

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Graph by Pat Carr/MCT; Source: International Monetary Fund

How Obama Should Maneuver Against the 'Axis of Evil' 2.0

With U.N. Week offering him more awkward handshakes, the Right backing him into World War III scenarios, and a brand-new missile system offering him even fewer defenses, can the president play the bad diplomatic hand dealt by his predecessor? A game plan for hard-line regime talks.

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Was It Enough? The Endgame for Obama's Health-Care Speech

Jason Reed/Sipa Press via Newscom

Sure, the president confronted the heckling right side of the aisle on Wednesday night, but more so than the American people, it's his own Democrats that needed convincing. A blow-by-blow analysis of the fight left unfinished.

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The Real Worst-Case Scenario for Swine Flu 2.0

Could a new wave of the H1N1 virus become as radioactive for Obama as Katrina was for Bush? Or could the threat of tens of thousands of children dying help him pass his health-care package? An in-depth assessment of the risks to moms and politicians across the country.

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Obama Targets Jack Bauer, but Who Takes the Fall?

The closer you read the newly released CIA reports and read into the Justice Department's torture probe, the more you realize nothing much is going to come of them -- except more enemies for the inheritor-in-chief.

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Why The Afghanistan Election May Not Really Matter

Because Karzai's probably going to win, and Obama's still going to trust another puppet. Because so-called democracy may take the vote, but the Taliban's still going to rule many hearts and minds. Because more U.S. troops may fight harder, but Pakistan's got the last word. To America, at least, Thursday is just another day in another long, unpopular war. And that's why Obama should be worried.

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Six Ways to Cool Down Over the Climate-Change Security Scare

There's perhaps no one better than our resident global-threat expert to smack down what the Times calls our "new" global-warming threat. So breathe easy and learn something, because it's really just another spooky headline.

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Why Al Qaeda Is Losing the War on Terror

Because the Middle East is catching up to -- and connecting with -- the rest of the world. And no matter how much peace Osama bin Laden's No. 2 tries to offer Barack Obama, there is no stopping globalization's power over extremism.

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The Invisible Woman: Hillary Clinton's Steady Creep Back to the White House

The state of the secretary of state, contrary to popular belief, is strong. And don't think she's not still eyeing the presidency.

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Seven Rules for America's (Long) Future in Afghanistan

The violence and the videos from the world's most frightening border got you down? Here's how Obama can build a nation -- and a re-election campaign -- as the war in Afghanistan begins again.

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