Mama Grizzly mating habits: The WikiLeaks cable you won't see

Upon release of the WikiLeaks cables in November, a foreign diplomat told Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton: “You should see what we say about you.” Following is a (fanciful) cable that the ambassador of a small embassy in Washington might send to his foreign minister.

SECRET. FOR EYES ONLY: FOREIGN MINISTER.

As requested, here is my assessment of the current US political situation. I am mindful of your criticism that earlier embassy assessments told you no more than you had already read in our capital on Internet versions of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

The Top 10 political quotes of 2010

We are cultivating reporters in Washington. Much of their juicy stuff does not appear in what they write. But, as I have mentioned earlier, our embassy budget is very tight. It is difficult to get much out of a White House correspondent over a couple of hamburgers at McDonald’s.

Obama's post-shellacking performance

After President Obama’s “shellacking” in the midterm elections, his immediate attitude was “you can take this job and shove it.” It looked as though “POTUS,” as the Secret Service calls the president, was outsourcing the job. He sent Vice President Joe Biden to deal with Congress. He delegated Secretary Clinton to arm-twist the Israelis and Palestinians. (Both Mr. Biden and Clinton ran against Mr. Obama in the 2008 campaign and both probably think they could do the president’s job better.) Then, during a pre-Christmas press conference, he left for a party, giving the White House press podium to Bill Clinton (presumably “PAST-POTUS”), who clearly thinks he could do the job better than Obama, Biden, and Hillary.

But POTUS is now back on his game. In the waning hours of the outgoing Congress, he pushed through a string of legislative victories that show he’s good for at least another two, and maybe six, years in the White House. Clearly, Bill Clinton isn’t the only Comeback Kid.

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