By BONO
Published: July 10, 2009 NYT

On his visit to Ghana, President Obama has the chance to lead nations in building on the successes of recent efforts within Africa and to learn from the failures.

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There are two basic truths about the enormous deficits that the federal government will run in the coming years.

The first is that President Obama’s agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying. The second is that Mr. Obama does not have a realistic plan for eliminating the deficit, despite what his advisers have suggested.

To understand the looming deficits, The New York Times analyzed Congressional Budget Office projections of the budget surplus or deficit for the years 2009-12, President Obama’s current term. The budget office has been making estimates for these years for nearly a decade now. The numbers that appear below are the average annual deficit or surplus for this four-year period.

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Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. of Utah in his office in Salt Lake City in March. He has been chosen by President Obama to be the next ambassador to China.

Kirk Johnson of the New York Times writes about Utah Governor Huntsman and the current state of the GOP.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has made waves in Utah by suggesting that the Republican party must move toward the center. With his support for President Obama’s economic stimulus plan, his successful effort to ease the state’s method of regulating liquor sales and his advocacy of civil unions to protect same-sex couples, Mr. Huntsman ignited a debate over what the Republican Party here should be.

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President Obama today chose Utah Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. (R) as his choice for ambassador to China, tapping a moderate Republican governor to be his envoy to the world’s largest country…

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Obama’s first 100 days in office, as told through his Facebook page.

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From Mint.com:

Everyone knows that China’s got more people & that its importance as an economic superpower has escalated in recent years. What you might not understand is how the differences btw our countries,in economic philosophy, in population, in geography and in how the military is built and paid for ultimately play into the entire economic relationship.

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Graphs depicting the differences between the economy, military, and natural resources of China and the United States.

Tim O’Reilly shares his thoughts on why Aneesh Chopra will make an outstanding chief technology officer for the United States of America.

Aneesh Chopra is a rock star. He’s a brilliant, thoughtful change-maker. He knows technology, he knows government, and he knows how to put the two together to solve real problems. We couldn’t do better. 

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