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In  a week in which David Letterman was defended as some kind of charming rogue for committing serial sexual harassment of his female co-workers, while the President of the United States was denounced in many circles for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, I just had to get out of town.   So, after lunching on Friday with "the most powerful women of Washington" (a great group, I'm honored to know them!) I tied my kayak to the top of the car and raced to one of my favorite local mind-clearing spots:  the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on the Eastern Shore. Full Article

People in Boston have already moved on.   The latest drama screaming across the front page of the Boston Globe is the "shocking, shocking" news that another baseball slugger, David Ortiz of the Red Sox, was on steroids the whole time.   Already relegated to below-the-fold status, the racial drama Harvard Prof v. Boston Cop took on the flavor of a soap opera with President Obama hosting the protagonists for a gauzy afternoon of beers and banter in the Rose Garden.   I found myself wondering how this privileged display went down with the anonymous young men of certain parts of our city who know that they can be arrested just about any time for looking suspicious, guys who are unlikely to get past 15th Street let alone into the Rose Garden anytime soon.   Don't mean to be cynical, but just wondering about the beery gloss over the tragic American scandal of racial conflict.  (Meanwhile, back in Boston, another police officer who wrote an email to a whole lot of people, including the Boston Globe, calling Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. a "jungle monkey" claims he is not a racist.  He's already been on Larry King and has lawyers defending his freedom of speech.  How much beer will it take to wash away this scandal?  You can't make this stuff up.)

There's a lot in the news right now that may make people want to drink:  billions in bonuses to banks that took bailout money; cash for clunkers crashing; drugs and the King of Pop; and that nasty truth about Americans still dying by the dozens in Afghanistan.   If we had a beer for every bad news day, we'd be drunk all the time. Full Article

President Obama is about to give a speech in which the worth of the words may well be calculated for days to come.   Tonight, before a joint session of Congress, the president will address the global economic crisis and his plans for economic recovery.   What he says, and how he says it, may well boost markets or cause them to continue their cascade toward an unknown bottom. Full Article

One of my favorite commentators on leadership, the late John Gardner who founded Common Cause, wrote in his essay No Easy Victories that "Most of all, we need leaders to give us hope…the first and last task of a leader is to keep hope alive."

In his Inaugural Address on Tuesday, President Barack Obama offered a sober assessment of the current state of the union and world.   But he did not wallow in the pits of malaise and discontent.  Rather, as a true leader must, he pointed the way toward a more vibrant future.   "We gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord," he declared, "…the time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history…" Full Article

Be kind to all the Philadelphia natives today if we seem a little giddy — improbably, the Phillies just won the World Series!   Only the second such crown in 126 years of baseball in the City of Brotherly Love (sometimes), and the first sports championship of any time for Philly in 25 years. Full Article