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11:20 AM ET, December 2, 2009

Top Items:

Obama's Afghan policy speech at West Point — Following is the transcript of President Obama's speech Tuesday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. (The Post's report on the president's address is here.) — Thank you. Please be seated. — Good evening.

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

This I Believe — Let me start with the bottom line and then tell you how I got there: I can't agree with President Obama's decision to escalate in Afghanistan. I'd prefer a minimalist approach, working with tribal leaders the way we did to overthrow the Taliban regime in the first place.

Discussion: Michael Calderone's Blog

Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:

A Disappointing Speech in Support of the Right Policy — President Obama's speech on Afghanistan was disappointing. Yes, the policy is right: more troops, a counter-insurgency strategy, a stronger alliance with Pakistan. But the personal commitment of the president to pursue the war …

Discussion: Commentary, Scared Monkeys, Hot Air, American Power and Donklephant

New York Times:

Two Messages for Two Sides — WASHINGTON — President Obama went before the nation on Tuesday night to announce that he would escalate the war in Afghanistan. And Mr. Obama went before the nation to announce that he had a plan to end the war in Afghanistan.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, Wall Street Journal, NY Daily News, The Huffington Post, Boston Globe, NPR Blogs, Politics Daily, Neptunus Lex and Prairie Weather

Peter Wehner / Commentary:
A Fighting Chance — The decision President Obama made was better …

Discussion: Power Line, Washington Wire, Ross Douthat and The Corner on National …

David Ignatius / Washington Post:
Surge in Afghanistan, then leave

Discussion: The Atlantic Politics Channel, New York Times, The Huffington Post, Outside The Beltway, Guardian, American Prospect, PostPartisan, The Corner on National …, The Fix, Washington Monthly and The Washington Independent

Huma Khan / ABCNEWS:
McCain:Obama's Timeline for Withdrawal will ‘Embolden Enemies’

Discussion: The Swamp, The Foundry and Political Punch

Paul / Power Line:
What I heard tonight — Earlier today I wondered whether …

Discussion: The Washington Independent, Gateway Pundit, CNN, The Jawa Report, The Moderate Voice and Hot Air

Kevin Drum / MoJo Blog Posts:
A Technocratic Speech — I didn't hear Obama's Afghanistan speech …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, American Prospect and Daniel W. Drezner

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Lunch With The President: The Politics Of Obama's War Plan

Discussion: The Note, Open Left, The Daily Dish and Michael Calderone's Blog

the Medium Lobster / Fafblog:
Victory Science — Let us never forget just what's at stake …

Discussion: Unfogged

John Dickerson / Slate:
Obama's Afghanistan speech was confusing.

Discussion: Spiegel Online, The Politico, Lynn Sweet, New York Times, Bloomberg, Commentary and Guardian

Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:
Obama Announces 30K More Troops for Afghanistan

Discussion: Firedoglake, Matthew Yglesias, Guardian and ATTACKERMAN

New York Times:
Obama Adds Troops, but Maps Exit Plan

Discussion: The Caucus, Los Angeles Times, Chris Floyd, Wonk Room, Democracy in America, Althouse, The Huffington Post, marbury, Gawker, The Note, ABCNEWS, DownWithTyranny!, The Politico, Towleroad News #gay, Washington Post, CNN and Jason Chaffetz

Jesse Lee / White House.gov Blog Feed:
The New Way Forward - The President's Address

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Indecision Forever, Clive Crook and Michelle Malkin

Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blog:
Obama lunches with top political writers

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative

William Kristol / PostPartisan:
A war president — In his Monday open letter/cri de coeur …

Discussion: Achenblog, Majikthise, Washington Post, FrumForum, Weekly Standard, The White House, Raw Story and Hot Air

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Obama Approval on Afghanistan, at 35%, Trails Other Issues

Discussion: Top of the Ticket, Don Surber, The Hill, Commentary, Politics Daily and NPR Blogs

Jeff Poor / NewsBusters.org:

Matthews Calls West Point, Site of Obama Speech ‘The Enemy Camp,’ ‘Strange Venue’ — Either MSNBC “Hardball” host Chris Matthews let one slip tonight, or it was an extremely poor choice of words. — Following President Barack Obama's Dec. 1 speech, which he announced his intentions …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, Scared Monkeys, The Foundry, Stop The ACLU, DaTechguy's Blog, JammieWearingFool, Erick's blog and Another Black Conservative

Heather / Crooks and Liars:

Matthews on Obama's Speech at West Point: He ‘Went to Maybe the Enemy Camp Tonight’ — Chris Matthews with possibly the stupidest comment of the night after Obama's speech at West Point. A military installation is “the enemy camp” Chris? Unbelievable. … Matthews was already back tracking a bit later in the evening.

Ronald Bailey / Reason:

The Scientific Tragedy of Climategate — Can climate change science recover from the damage done by leaked emails? — Climategate. What a hot mess. Researchers at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia and their colleagues around the globe may have fiddled …

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, CBS News, Maggie's Farm, Pajamas Media and Hot Air

Megan McArdle:
Climategate III: The Mystery of the Missing Data

Discussion: pipeline.corante.com and Dean's World

New York Post:
No data = no science

Discussion: The New Republic

BBC:

Google to limit free news access — Newspaper publishers will now be able to set a limit on the number of free news articles people can read through Google, the company has announced. — The concession follows claims from some media companies that the search engine is profiting from online news pages.

Josh Cohen / Google News Blog:

Google and paid content — As newspapers consider charging for access to their online content, some publishers have asked: Should we put up pay walls or keep our articles in Google News and Google Search? In fact, they can do both - the two aren't mutually exclusive.

Discussion: Post Tech, Bits, Mediaite, TechCrunch, Mashable! and Riehl World View

CNN:

McCain challenges Obama in private meeting — Washington (CNN) - Hours before he was set to address the nation on his new Afghanistan strategy, President Obama and members of his war council spent about an hour briefing senior members of Congress at a White House meeting that multiple sources described as businesslike and sobering.

Discussion: The Hill, MyDD and Riehl World View

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

THERE ARE 39 OTHER GOP SENATORS.... NBC News announced the line-up for this week's “Meet the Press.” Take a wild guess who'll be on. … I especially loved the “Exclusive!” with the exclamation point, as if this were a rare, special occurrence. — For those keeping score at home …

Discussion: msnbc.com and No More Mister Nice Blog

Tiger Woods:

Tiger comments on current events — I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves. I am not without faults and I am far short of perfect. I am dealing with my behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family.

Discussion: Mediaite, Sense of Events and NPR Blogs

Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook Blog:

An Open Letter from Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg — It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected. Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online. — To make this possible …

Discussion: Telegraph, TechCrunch, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Mashable! and GigaOM

Hotline On Call:

Tanner To Retire — Rep. John Tanner (D-TN), a leading Blue Dog Dem, will retire at the end of his current term, Dem sources tell Hotline OnCall. — [UPDATE: Tanner released a statement late tonight confirming the news. “Betty Ann and I had considered retiring in 2007 at the end of the 110th Congress …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, The Greenroom, The Fix, Swing State Project, RedState and MyDD

The Politico:
Blue Dog Tanner to retire from House

Discussion: Think Progress, Scorecard's Blog, The Hill and The Moderate Voice

The Hill:

Reid set to unveil new public option, breaking Senate impasse on healthcare — A new measure on the public option will be unveiled next week, which Senate Democratic leaders hope will break the logjam on healthcare reform. — Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), who has been tapped by Majority Leader Harry Reid …