The VP with Foot in Mouth - VP Biden

The New York Times: Reports on the relationship between Vice President Biden and President Obama, how after a few up and downs they have a working relationship that works.

Lets Get Real:

If President Obama wants to make sure he gets re-elected he has to dump VP Biden and place Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has his VP choice of 2012. The lack of the Oval doing this does recall LBJ, he could have chosen Senator Robert Kennedy as his VP in 1964 but didn't want to be seen as having been elected due to Robert Kennedy. This was a political mistake by LBJ, if he had chosen RFK he would have had a good chance of winning the 1968 Presidential Election, also as the Vietnam War went badly he could have used RFK to blunt the liberal attack, but that is counter factual history folks, you can never tell. Lets look at more recent history, it can be argued that Bush 43 should have replaced VP Cheney in 2004 with a candidate who could run in part on the Bush record, has Bush 41 ran on being the VP to Ronald Reagan in 1988. A 2nd term President has to face the fact that without this VP running after the first year he becomes less important, if the VP is running he can not afford to burn his bridges with his President. Thus POTUS has some power, if only the ability to hurt his VP, Richard Nixon was hurt when Ike told reports that he would need a week to work out what Nixon has done over eight years. The Reagan legacy looks good because his VP won, the Bill Clinton less because Al Gore lost in 2000. Thus POTUS should consider Hillary Clinton for VP, then he will have some power in a 2nd term win, otherwise he will find he has become a silent screen star with no voice as the press will be in Iowa quite early for 2016.

Greece on the Edge - Eurozone Crisis

Guardian: Reports on how the Tsipras comments has effected the world stock markets, the article notes the following, " ... shockwaves through financial markets by announcing the pledges Athens had made to secure rescue funds from the EU and IMF were null and void. ".

Lets Get Real:

The good people of Greece have to make up their minds, are they in our out of the Euro, if they are in they have to follow through with their bailout deal or if they don't want to keep to the agreement they are out of the Euro. That's the only two choices that Greece has, the Classic Greeks would be appalled to see how far Greece has fallen, if its word can not be trusted then the old line would be true, beware of Greeks bearing gifts, they con you then wont pay you back, that's the harsh truth Greece has to deal with, does it want the World Community not to trust the word of Greece.

Latest Terror Plot against the US

Telegraph: Reports that the US used a drone strike in Yemen to foil an attempted terror attack on the US using a suicide bomber on a plane.

Lets Get Real:

The success of the CIA in foiling this attack shows the importance of the US and its Allies keeping its guard up, the War on Terror is never over folks. The Terrorists only have to get lucky once and the US or its Allies could face another 9/11 or worse. Thus all means have to be used in the prevention of such action by the terrorists, even torture folks, what would happen if Al Qaeda could get its hands on a dirty bomb and explode it in New York, London or Paris, would the voters care about the rights of the terrorists or would they want to know why their leaders had not acted faster and with more of a ruthless manner, that's the world today folks.

Greek Bailout at RISK

BBC News: Reports that Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Syriza, a left wing Greek Party that came second in the Greek election with 16.78% of the vote has stated that he wants to form a Coalition Government that will refused to follow the bailout agreement agreed by the previous Government.

Lets Get Real:

It is time for the EU and Germany to play hardball with the Greeks, either follow the agreed deal or get out of the Euro and lose your voting rights in the EU. If need be Greece should be cut lose, it will come back with better judgment if it finds itself out in the cold and broke. If you EU blinks with Greece you will see even more pain for Greece and the rest of the EU, why should the other bailed out countries have tough austerity measures if Greece can tell the EU to get lost. This is judgment time for EU, either the EU can make Greece keep its previous agreements or the EU and the Euro is heading for the cliff.