>>>What made me think we could trust the former leader of the KGB as an ally?
>>>
>>>He is making (and will continue to make) Obama look like an absolute amateur.
>>
>>My grandma could do that (and she's been dead for 30 years).
>
>
>For generations, eminent New York Times wordsmiths have swooned over foreign strongmen, from Walter Duranty's Pulitzer-winning paeans to the Stalinist utopia to Thomas L. Friedman's more recent effusions to the "enlightened" Chinese politburo.
>
>So it was inevitable that the cash-strapped Times would eventually figure it might as well eliminate the middle man and hire the enlightened strongman direct. Hence Vladimir Putin's impressive debut on the op-ed page this week.
>...
>
>Mark Steyn
>http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/091313-671009-washington-anoints-putin-as-international-peacemaker.htm?p=full

Like the rest of the American newspaper business, the Times is in rough shape. Maureen Dowd is still going stong but some very good ones have been let go.

I had a pleasant email exchange with Sarah Lyall of the Times last week after she posted a goodbye column from England after reporting from there for so many years. I told her honestly how much I appreciated her reporting. She said thank you very much. I asked what she is doing now, fearing the worst, and she said pretty much whatever I like. Cool.

The best in the business IMO. I will never forget this on the street reporting from New Orleans after Katrina.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/national/nationalspecial/08orleans.html?pagewanted=all