The debate over Afghanistan re-emerged this week as 27 senators sent a letter to President Obama calling on "the United States to shift course in Afghanistan." And as we saw this morning in my interview with Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and in last week's Republican presidential debate, withdrawal from Afghanistan is continuing to climb the list of important issues in 2012.
During our "Trends & Takeaways" segment today, we replayed a quote from Graham earlier in the show when he talked about an interesting role reversal in the GOP. The South Carolina Republican said:
If you think the pathway to the GOP nomination in 2012 is to get to Barack Obama's left on Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq, you're going to meet a lot of headwinds. This is not a war of Afghan independence from my point of view, this is the center of gravity against the war on terror.
Here's more from Durbin and Graham on U.S. conflicts abroad.
Also I talked to the senators about budget battles in Washington - including the debate over Medicare. You can see our full conversation here.
This morning I was also happy to have in studio our Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel, who spends most of his time in some of the most dangerous places in the Middle East. He gave some very interesting analysis on how the world views our political debates and the 2012 race.
You can see our full roundtable discussion here.
Have a Happy Father's Day.
If it's Sunday, it's Meet The Press.
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Paul Gigot repeated and even one-upped the myth that "Texas has created nearly 40% of all the jobs in the U.S. (with the original number cited being 37%)" based upon an unverified comment by the head of the Dallas Fed to a WSJ columnist.
Problem is, the number is total nonsense, and I find it more than a touch annoying that this absurd claim is going unchallenged week after week. I checked the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The actual number is closer to 19.9%, with nearly half of that coming from GOVERNMENT JOBS paid for with Stimulus dollars that Perry never misses an opportunity to denounce. Also, most of the jobs created are minimum wage with no benefits, helping to explain why Texas has the highest number of uninsured residents in the nation.
Hey Bugsy;
Who cares about Texas? They're just going to secede from the U.S. anyway. We should save all that stimulus money we keep sending down there. Of course, we could call it foreign aid. LOL.
Paul Gigot does not always have all of his cookies in place. He has made so me boner mistakes as head of WSJ. I wish I had references for you. But it mighty be best to stay tuned and listen when he is ever interviewed.
Sen. Graham states that we need to take away the subsidies, tax breaks and entitlements, such as those to the ethanol interests. Yet, Republicans and many Democrats stood together to make sure that the big oil companies that made record profits should continue to receive their subsidies, tax breaks and entitlements. I'm confused by the inability of Mr. Gregory, as a journalist, to let this get by without question. Who owns our Congressmen and do any have the selfless values needed that will help America and all its people grow and live the American dream? As Americans, we have to wake up and find the truth, but unfortunately, it seems that the media is also being controlled. We will find the truth if we love our country.