dimitry medvedev gets burgers but no state dinner

dimitry medvedev, president of russia, met with barack obama yesterday in dc. the staged photo op of the two chowing down on burgers is quite unlike the reception george w. bush used to give to dignitaries. but we guess obama wants to prove he is a man of the people. according the reuters, medvedev is quoted as saying about his burger, ‘probably it’s not quite healthy. but it’s very tasty. you can feel the spirit of America.’

vladimir obama

the economist this week refers to barack obama in its cover story article as vladimir obama due to the recent governmennt shakedown of BP. has the u.s. government gone too far by insisting BP handover the u.s. government 20B dollars in an escrow account that BP will have zero control over?

tony hayward, ceo of BP, who was treated really badly by the u.s. congress last week, is on his way to bow at the feat of vladmir putin and dimitry medvedev to reassure him and russian industry that BP won’t go belly up. this is important as russia supplies 25% of BP’s oil.

berlusconi flourishes under financial crisis

there have been a number of articles over the past few weeks about how silvio berlusconi, the 72 year old prime minister of italy and media mogul has seen his popularity rise during the present international banking crisis. the new york times notes that berlusconi is in very good spirits. this article comes 4 days after a similar version ran in the financial times.

could it be that the editors of the new york times are following the lead of international newspapers when it comes to covering international news, as opposed to generating their own stories?

what’s also questionable about the article is the mention of russia followed by vladimir putin’s poll number while there is zero mention of the present president of russia, dimitry medvedev. even in the u.s. presidential debates, the moderators insisted on discussing vladimir putin (as did the presidential candidates) while ignoring medvedev. although putin may be the power behind the power. until we 100% know, it seems that there should at least be some acknowledgement that russia has a new head of state.

putin and medvedev hand mccain u.s. election

consciously or unconsciously. russia has perhaps handed john mccain the u.s. election. george will hints at this in an opinion piece in the washington post.