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Local company staff, dressed as Santa Claus, ride motorcycles in downtown Hanoi, Vietnam on December 24, 2008.
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[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/06/16/art.jebbush1.gi.jpg caption="Florida Governor Jeb Bush eyes a seat in the Senate."]
Jennifer Rubin
Commentary
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush seems poised to run for Senate. For many conservatives that is welcome news. For the Bush-haters and immigration reform opponents, not so much.
So far, it appears that incumbent Sen. Mel Martinez would complete his term. That would seem to be a fine idea for at least two reasons. First, it would separate Jeb Bush from the dynastic appointment epidemic which is both distasteful and potentially harmful to the 2010 re-election prospects of those elevated without benefit of an election. Second, it will allow him to critique the progress of the new administration and the Democratic Congress over the next two years. If we don’t stage a miraculous recovery and the Obama administration’s plans don’t work out quite as planned, Bush and other 2010 challengers will be in an ideal spot.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/images/12/26/art.huntington.jpg caption="Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres (L) talks with Samuel P. Huntington of Harvard University."]
Editor's Note: Political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilizations, has died. In 2001, Robert D. Kaplan profiled Huntington for the Atlantic, assessing his thinking about Islam and the West.
Robert D. Kaplan
The Atlantic
The most memorable review that Samuel Phillips Huntington, the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor at Harvard, ever got was a bad one. "Imagine," Huntington recalled recently, sitting in his home on Boston's Beacon Hill. "The first review of my first book, and the reviewer compares me unfavorably to Mussolini." He blinked and squinted shyly through his eyeglasses. Huntington, seventy-four, speaks in a serene and nasal voice, the East Bronx modified by high Boston. He described how the reviewer, Matthew Josephson, writing in the left-wing opinion magazine The Nation, had ridiculed the militarism and "brutal sophistries" of The Soldier and the State and had sneered that Mussolini's sentiments had been similar though his words had more panache: "Believe, obey, fight!"
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Susan Lee
Forbes.com
One of the quite reasonable fears about government bailouts is that they encourage moral hazard. Why not engage in risky behavior if there are no consequences? Yet, as the government spends hundreds of billions to bail out some awesomely stupid activities, all signs point the other way.
Reckless behavior has almost disappeared from the financial landscape, sure. But so has a lot of reasonable behavior. And this may create a massive problem. What if, as conditions worsen, reasonable risk-taking totally disappears? What if we're transformed from a nation of risk-takers into a nation of wussies?
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2008/POLITICS/12/21/clinton.debt/art.clintondebt.gi.jpg caption="Senator Hillary Clinton"]
Kevin Bogardus
The Hill
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) move to the Department of State could remove a significant fundraiser for Democrats.
Clinton, whom President-elect Obama has nominated as secretary of State, has raised and contributed millions of dollars to candidates and party committees since her election in 2000, and the former first lady has never been shy in traveling around the country to lend her fame to fellow Democrats.
“If you were organizing an event with her, you know you can put a number next to her name because of her star power and network,” said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist. “Up until you had Obama, she was in a category all by herself.”
Penny Manis
AC360 Senior Producer
For those of you celebrating Christmas, we at AC360 hope you had a great one yesterday.
This year brought one of the most challenging holiday shopping seasons in decades for retailers. A weak economy is to blame of course, and the weather didn't help. Retailers want some help from the Federal Govt next year, and they aren't the only ones. Tom Foreman and Joe Johns will tell us more tonight.
We’ll have the latest from Los Angeles on the unbelievable so-called “Santa shooter.” A man showed up to a Christmas Eve party dressed in a Santa Claus outfit and proceeded to walk through the home shooting off 2 semi-automatic handguns and starting a fire.
People were jumping out of windows on both floors trying to escape. This sounds like a scene from a bad horror flick but unfortunately it happened in real life. Police will hold a press conference and David Mattingly will have this report.
Today is the 4 year anniversary of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami that killed more than 223,000 people and struck multiple countries. Victims were honored in Asia where folks burned candles, prayed and shared meals on beaches from Indonesia to India.
For many, this was a time of reflection on life and progress in rebuilding homes wiped out by the killer waves. Anderson at the time had flown out there to cover this story, we’ll offer a glimpse back at the dramatic scenes he witnessed.
Pakistan troops have reportedly moved to the Indian border amid fears of an Indian ground incursion. Pakistan has been on high alert ever since the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month, in anticipation of a possible conflict with India, because India believes that the 10 men who carried out the attacks were trained at a terror camp in the Pakistan-controlled part of Kashmir.
The US has been in close contact with both sides since the Mumbai attacks to try to avoid Pakistan-Indian tensions. Nic Robertson and Peter Bergen will have more on this story.
And let’s not forget our President-Elect-he is in Hawaii, and our Ed Henry follows his moves. There are worse assignments during a holiday week than reporting from Hawaii so even if P-E Obama doesn’t make news tonight, we may still have to do a live shot with Ed if only to get a background scene of that sun and beach so he can make us all jealous and we can live vicariously through him.
All the above and more tonight, see u then!