A busy day in Washington.. with the Senate rehashing Barack's economic recovery plan..
The key vote on the $Am820 billion recovery program is on Monday.. and while it's expected to pass the Senate.. Barack needs some Republican support. He does hold a majority in the Senate.. but because there is a proceedural wrinkle, he needs 60 votes from the Opposition..
And much to Barack's dismay, no doubt, his initial plans have been pared away in key areas..the likes of health care benefits for those now out of work.. and there have been pointed questions about plans the likes of a $Am500 tax cut across the board for the man on the street.. Comparisons with the six hundred dollar bonus handed out last year by the Bush administration. Just how far towards getting the public to return to the auto showrooms the proposed tax reduction on purchases is being looked at.. the 100 billion proposed to have been doled out to individual States to renew their infrastructures, has been scrapped..
Now these are programs Barack had counted on.. thinking that his vision of putting America would be embraced by a united Senate and House..
It's so much more complicated running a country..
Now.. on the international front.. Joe Biden's pitching concilliation around like confetti at
The new Vice-President's looking to push a 'reset button' in it's relations with several countries.. Russia and Iran in particular.. He's speaking this weekend in Munich at a conference of international leaders and security experts..
Watch Joe and Hillary over the next few months..
They'll no doubt soon be mediating between India and Pakistan.. with Joe insisting that there will be no real inroads towards wiping out terrorism without the full involvement of Pakistan, and India calling on the International Community to class Pakistan as a terrorist base..
This on the heels of an announcement from a Pakistani terrorist group.. saying they had killed a Polish geologist kidnapped some months ago..
Ahhh.. it's what keeps diplomats and politicians looking so young..
And..keep in mind.. that nothing takes place in the Middle East without the knowledge..and tacit approval of, or outright complicity with.. the Saudi's..
Should any progress be made.. it will be with the Saudi's pulling the strings..
And, the Foreign Relations team is going to have to keep a close eye on South America.. Ecuador's kicking an American diplomat out of the country for 'meddling with police and internal affairs'..
Raphael Correra's kept reasonably close ties with the US.. but that's certainly not the case with Ecuador's neighbours..
As said above.. it's a lot more complicated...