Your Breakfast Read, Served By The Confluence

• 100-Days-Palooza
  Obama ‘pleased, not satisfied’

  Obama Emphasizes Sharp Departures From Bush Policies

  The Instant American Revolution

• David Rothkopf identifies the clear winner of Obama’s first 100 days. I agree with him
  Hillary is ‘suprise winner’ of first 100 days, Rothkopf says

  FP blogger David Rothkopf has picked his surprise winners and losers of Obama’s first 100 days, and one of the winners is Secretary Clinton. After stating that National Security Advisor James L. Jones is the surprise loser in the “foreign policy division,” Rothkopf writes:

  [A] good place to look if [Jones] wants an example [of] how to do it all right thus far is over in Foggy Bottom where the surprise winner of the first 100 days in this division is Hillary Clinton. She was supposed to be the uncontrollable ego, but instead she has turned out to be the team player who is using her star-power to very effectively advance the Obama agenda.

  Indeed, check out the powerful response Clinton gave to U.S. Rep. Mike Pence

• Barack Obama uses the T-word
  Obama: ‘I believe waterboarding was torture, and it was a mistake’

• The world gets serious against the “Gay Mexican Devil Flying Pig Flu” (courtesy of Dakinikat)
  Swine flu: pandemic alert level raised amid warning of ‘imminent’ emergency

  World Health Organization Raises Swine Flu Alert Level

• Not too long ago, Karl Rove, Tom Delay and other Right-wing apparatchiks were talking about a permanent majority for the GOP. How’s that going?
  G.O.P. Debate: A Broader Party or a Purer One?

  A fundamental debate broke out among Republicans on Wednesday over how to rebuild the party in the wake of Senator Arlen Specter’s departure: Should it purge moderate voices like Mr. Specter and embrace its conservative roots or seek to broaden its appeal to regain a competitive position against Democrats?

  Republicans feud over Specter

  Faced with a high-profile defection and the prospect of political irrelevance in the Senate, Republicans took off the gloves Wednesday for a ferocious game of finger-pointing.

• Hillary Clinton laid the groundwork. This may be the opportunity to realize what she started
  Moment Is Ripe for President to Fix Health Care

• Specter hasn’t completely won the trust of The Old Gray Lady’s editorial board
  Shifting With the Middle Ground

• A very funny George Will whines about “Reconciliation”
  The Democrats’ Disharmony

• Christine Todd Whitman is worried about the GOP
  It’s Still My Party

• Why are in Iraq again?
  Death toll from twin Iraq car bombs rises to 51

  Maybe the Brits are smarter than we are
  The last days of British forces in Iraq

• As Paul Krugman said “Things will get worse, but more slowly”
  Fed expects weakness to persist

• IS 2009 THE NEW 1929?
  Current Crisis Shows Uncanny Parallels to Great Depression

• Maybe there’s no saving Chrysler
  Chrysler teeters on brink of bankruptcy

• What is Goldman up to?
  Timing of Goldman bond sale raises questions

• A bunch of guys are trying to make out like bandits on Timmy’s PPIP
  More than 100 fund managers apply to PPIP

• Congress should listen to Thomas Frank
  Why Congress Won’t Investigate Wall Street
  Republicans and Democrats would find themselves in the hot seat.

• The women in Afghanistan are tough
  Defying threats, fighting oppression: the woman leading protests in Afghanistan

• What explains the gloom in KY?
  U.S. Mood Map: Kentucky Saddest, Hawaii Gladdest?