Dennis Ross' claim to fame is of course that he was part of Clinton's negotiating team at Camp David II and thus qualifies as a level head given the popular mythology of Clinton's heroic, bipartisan efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. That his co-negotiator, Robert Malley, who challenged the fairness of Clinton and Ross' "brokering" of the peace process, should be demonized or just ignored by the media now, while Ross' status is being elevated, speaks volumes about our alleged commitment to peace.

Not only, as Wonkerr points out, is Ross' certainty about Iran's hostile intentions at odds with the NIE report that he cites himself, but how could anyone expect that, just for the sake of some unspecified "benefits" offered by the US, Iran would back down from supporting causes that it perceives as resistance to oppression?

The prospects of Iran reducing its support for Hezbollah and Hamas, for example, would be much greater if the US genuinely sought to broker peace in Israel and Palestine and find some common ground with Iran's regional interests than offer "sticks and carrots".

My only hope is that, given his obvious intelligence, Obama has the capability of looking beyond his "advisors."

not in the campaigning sense, but in the prep, the study, the training, the advance planning, the putting together of transition teams.

Why? Besides the mere fact that his history reveals the portrait of an overachiever, my read on it is "because he believes he has to" - because he understands that the first African-American President has *more* responsibilities than a white President, because the hopes of 12.9% of the US population are resting directly upon him. He can change history for them; in fact, he already has.

The biggest fear I have for Obama's safety right now is that he will actually kill himself through overwork, trying too hard to be the best President America's ever had - the most competent, the most responsible, the most unifying, the most solid, the hardest-working.

Because he believes he has to, just to be viewed as "having done OK".