Make or break time at last night’s GOP debate. US aims to isolate Iran in response to assassination plot. Obama’s job creation record. The poem that changed the world.
Make or break time at last night’s GOP debates
The Bloomberg/Washington Post debate, the seventh of the election season, aired last night.
The field has seen a lot of shake-ups with the withdrawal of supposed heavy-hitter Tim Pawlenty, the financial floundering of former frontrunner Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry’s epic flameout at the last debate.
This one is make or break time for Perry. He entered the race like he was the captain of the football team, but his fumbling attack of Mitt Romney at last month’s Fox News debate seriously injured his status in the field.
One candidate who’s benefited greatly from Perry’s fall is Herman Cain. He saw his numbers skyrocket after positive debate reviews and a big win at the Florida straw poll. But he’s taking some time off the campaign (official) trail for a publicity tour for his new book that forecasts his win in the 2012 presidential election.
WEIGH IN:
Now that we’re all better acquainted with the candidates, how do you like what you’re seeing? Who do you think “won” the debate and who didn’t do themselves any favors? Did anybody make a major fumble?
Guests:
Jonathan Wilcox, Republican strategist and former speech writer for Gov. Pete Wilson
Matt Rodriguez, Democratic strategist; former senior Obama adviser in 2008, who now runs the Los Angeles office for the Dewey Square Group
US aims to isolate Iran in response to alleged assassination plot
It's being described as a brazen and bizarre conspiracy. The U.S. Justice Department has charged two Iranian men for allegedly plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador in Washington, D.C.
In a news conference yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder said the men hired a hit man in Mexico who happened to be an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
"The idea that they would attempt to go to a Mexican drug cartel to solicit murder-for-hire to kill the Saudi ambassador, nobody could make that up, right?" said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an interview with the Associated Press. The U.S. has already begun action against Tehran today.
Reportedly, the State Department sent a cable to American ambassadors around the world telling them to call on their host governments to take appropriate steps against Iran. Anonymous officials said the cable does not suggest specific measures. Attorney General Eric Holder was asked yesterday whether the plot was blessed by the top echelons of the Iranian government. Holder responded that the Justice Department was not making that accusation. Nevertheless, President Barack Obama's top national security aides said new international sanctions against Tehran are warranted.
Iran's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, dismissed the allegations. "These are cheap claims.... We have normal relations with the Saudis. There is no reason for Iran to carry out such childish acts." However, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former ambassador to Washington, said Wednesday the burden of proof was "overwhelming" and "clearly shows official Iranian responsibility" for the plot.
WEIGH IN:
Why would these men want to kill the Saudi ambassador? What is their connection to the Iranian leadership? What are the next steps the US should take? How might Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad react to further sanctions? What other countries will join the United States in seeking sanctions?
Guest:
Trita Parsi, founder and president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC); author of “Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States” (Yale University Press 2007)
Obama’s job creation record
It’s becoming more and more evident that, in the coming presidential race, it’s all going to come down to one thing: jobs. The country needs them, but how will it make them happen?
Since the beginning of President Obama’s term unemployment has been an issue, and he’s launched a number of ships in this flotilla of job-creation experiments: the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the HIRE Act, the Education Jobs Act and Medicaid Assistance Act, the Small Business Jobs Act. And don’t forget the auto industry bailout – leftover from the previous administration – and all those unemployment benefit extensions.
Which ones have been successful – as in, jobs saved and/or created – and which have fizzled out? Obama’s latest rain-making strategy is his much-anticipated jobs plan, which some analysts say could add nearly 2 million jobs and cut the unemployment rate by a percentage point. But like the others, it will cost us – nearly $5 billion in tax cuts and spending increases.
WEIGH IN:
Will it pay off? Have any of the arrows in Obama’s quiver hit their target? Let’s add up the numbers and see just where his record on jump-starting jobs stands.
Guests:
Heidi Shierholz, economist, Economic Policy Institute
Gordon Gray, Director of Fiscal Policy, American Action Forum
The poem that changed the world
In his new book, historian Stephen Greenblatt uses the lens of history to illuminate a deeper history.
"The Swerve: How the World Became Modern" tells the story of an Italian scholar, Poggio Bracciolini, who, while combing through the stacks in a German monastery 600 years ago, discovered an ancient, dust-covered manuscript by Roman philosopher Lucretius. His epic poem, "On the Nature of Things," posited dangerous and heretical ideas: that the universe functioned without the use of gods, that religious fear was damaging to humanity, and that matter was made up of miniscule particles, colliding and swerving in eternal motion.
Lost to history for a millennium, the long-forgotten tome was brought to light by Bracciolini, then copied, painstakingly and by hand, by overworked monks (whose complaints are recounted in the book as well). And things got really interesting when Bracciolini brought his discovery back to Italy – to the shock of Church officials.
Greenblatt maintains that these events changed the course of modern thought, fueling the Renaissance and inspiring its artists, thinkers and scientists. Botticelli, Galileo, Freud, Darwin, Einstein and Thomas Jefferson are just a few of those whose minds were shaped by Lucretius’ words.
WEIGH IN:
Was Bracciolini’s moment of discovery the cultural swerve that opened the door to the modern world? How would things be different if Lucretius’ book had never seen the light of day? How have the ideas in The Nature of Things shaped your world view? What great thinkers, writers, artists and scientists have inspired you?
Guest:
Stephen Greenblatt, author of "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern" and Cogan University professor of humanities at Harvard University. He is the author of eleven books, including "Shakespeare’s Freedom, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare and The Wonder of the New World."
Greenblatt appears at Writers Bloc this evening at 7:30, in conversation with Eric Idle.