Canceled. Jeremy diamond is where the president just delivered the commencement speech, minutes ago. Jeremy, the president , we heard, had been furious about the rhetoric coming from north korea. It certainly doesnt seem he is so much today. Yeah, thats right. If you were feeling a case of whiplash right now, i dont think anybody would blame you. Less than 24 hours after the president sent a letter to kim jongun to cancel this planned summit in singapore next month, the president now appears to say well, this summit could be back on the table. He suggested that u. S. And north korean officials are once again speaking to each other, once again communicating potentially about the logistics of the future summit between himself and the north Korean Leader kim jongun. This would be, of course, the first summit between a u. S. And north Korean Leader. But it is difficult to see what exactly has changed beyond that communication. Yesterday, the North Koreans put out a statement signaling they
State Rep. Herb Richardson staffs the Coos County Democratic Committee booth at the Lancaster Fair on Aug. 30, 2018. Richardson passed away in March, months after filing a complaint against
said that kim changed in his words after the second meeting with president xi. i don t think china is to blame. they did a good job reinserting themselves into the process. they were a little afraid of being left to the side of the road. they got back in the middle of it where they wanted to be. i think it is exactly has govern herb richardson said. the president set the bar almost impossibly high on himself, the virtual immediate denuclearization. that was never going to happen. ironically, what could happen and there is at least a possibility is to get some kind of deal, a little like the deal that the president trashed with iran, where they take a series of steps overtime that are reciprocated, that start to curb their program, not eliminate everything, but get it in check. unfortunately, the president setting this bar so high makes it very, very hard for him to succeed and the idea that he would even get something as effective as the iranian agreement that he threw out, up
here he is four years later, still at it. while in richardson s home, brown reportedly characterized obamacare as a, quote, monstrosity that s hurting the middle class. then something really remarkable happened which is that reality entered in. herb richardson, the guy who was hosting him, the republican state representative whose house he was in, spoke up to say that obamacare had been a financial life saver after he was injured on the job and his old pre-obamacare health insurance had eaten up most of his workers comp. thank god for obamacare richardson s wife exclaimed. brown, according to the reporter who was there, had no response, because really what could you possibly say? of course, after all that, richardson said he would still endorse brown if he decides to run. demonstrating once again that in the war between reality and magical thinking, reality does not always win. there s another story making headlines this week in which the
not always, but sometimes the campaign trail can be a place where myth and reality get to meet face to face. take our old friend, scott brown, former massachusetts senator, now openly considering another run for senate, this time in new hampshire. the once and maybe future senator was recently visiting the home of a republican legislator by the name of herb richardson for a meet and greet in his newly adopted home state. and in that intimate setting, scott brown did what scott brown does. he railed against obamacare. brown, you might remember, rose to prominence in the wake of ted kennedy s death by campaigning on stopping the health care law. when brown won the special election to fill kennedy s seat in an upset victory, he was going to be the guy who stopped president obama s signature legislation. breaking the filibuster-proof majority of democrats. despite in all the fuss, scott brown did not derail the affordable care act. here he is four years later,