Barack Obama says he agrees with Abraham Lincoln (you could ask him) that America is "the exceptional nation," a nation unique in a world of moral squalor, a beacon of hope for the "tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free." But sometimes cold pragmatism demands the exceptional nation make exceptions.
Richard A. Holbrooke, a brilliant and feisty U.S. diplomat who wrote part of the Pentagon Papers, was the architect of the 1995 Bosnia peace plan and served as President Obama's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, died Monday, an administration official said. He was 69.
Former President Jimmy Carter was preparing to leave for North Korea on Tuesday to try to gain the freedom of an American imprisoned for illegally entering the communist nation, U.S. officials said Monday night.
PRESIDENT BUSH
