Wiretap: Considering the Obama Doctrine

Obama sits down with New York Times columnist Tom Friedman to talk about negotiations with Iran and what Friedman calls the “Obama Doctrine” on foreign policy. It’s a policy of confident engagement. Obama: “We are powerful enough to be able to test these propositions without putting ourselves at risk. And that’s the thing … people don’t seem to understand,” the president said. “You take a country like Cuba. For us to test the possibility that engagement leads to a better outcome for the Cuban people, there aren’t that many risks for us. It’s a tiny little country.” The Times website has posted the video.

VA Blues

It has been seven months since the Department of Veteran Affairs opened a brand new clinic in Colorado Springs, but more vets are having as much or more trouble just getting in to see a doctor. The Gazette’s Tom Roeder writes that troop cuts at local installations are putting more patients into a VA system that’s also fast losing personnel. The situation is no better in Denver, where construction of a new VA medical campus is already more than a billion dollars over budget and a year late.

No Snow

Colorado’s wimpy snowpack this year is starting to melt, but it won’t do much to help Californians, who just got an order from their governor to cut statewide water usage by 25 percent. Brian Domonkos supervises the U.S. Department of Agriculture snow survey in Colorado. He has a gift for understatement: “To see [the shrinking snowpack] continue almost unabated, almost to now, that’s quite abnormal.” The BLM promises everyone will still get their legal allotment of water. Via the Durango Herald.

A Good Deal

The details in the Iran deal are important, Peter Beinart writes in the Atlantic. But just as important is the deal itself, one that would prevent Russia and China from going back to business as usual with Tehran and, more than that, a deal that could bring an end to the 36-year cold war between America and Iran.

Targeting Bennet

In the budget vote-a-rama gotcha game — in which each party tacks on amendments meant to embarrass voters from the other party — Michael Bennet, the most vulnerable Democratic senator, was right there in the middle. Via Politico.

Holy Week Gay Marriage

Two takes on Indiana in the New York Times. Frank Bruni writes on bigotry, the bible, same-sex sinners and lessons from the Hoosier state. Ross Douthat meets the press — i.e., himself — in which the liberal media interviews a Christian.

Leading from Behind

The 2016 Republican candidates all oppose same-sex marriage, even if they don’t all oppose it in exactly the same way. Via the National Journal.

So Wrong

Columbia Journalism School did a 12,000-page report on everything Rolling Stone did wrong on its University of Virginia rape story. Vox gives you the four key points.

Is that It?

Mad Men is back. And asking, once more, is that all there is. The recap: Don’t read if you haven’t seen it. Via the Washington Post.

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