Yesterday, in an appearance at Georgetown, Robert Gates and Hillary Clinton defended the Obama administration's strategy review process for Afghanistan across the backdrop of an increasingly ridiculous media narrative of personal friction between the president and Gen. Stanley McChrystal. As Spencer Ackerman reported:

Jon Henke highlights an article by Mark McKinnon, using it to talk about how President Obama has "dropped the 'change' charade." Henke's principal evidence is that Obama kept the office of political affairs in the White House:

I've argued before that black people shouldn't expect President Obama to be a "black leader" in the sense that we commonly use the term -- as someone who represents the interests of the black community. As president, his responsibility is larger than that, and so his focus should be too.

I wasn't sure why President Obama calling Kanye West a "jackass" in what was meant to be an off-the-record exchange with ABC News was, well news, but I'm starting to get the idea.

From Ryan Grim at HuffPo comes the news that Yosi Sargant, the communications director for the National Endowment for the Arts, was asked to resign after Glenn Beck accused him of promoting Nazi ideas.

Who's next?

This week WorldNetDaily's smear-monger-in-chief, Aaron Klein, set his sights higher than low-level employees like Sargant. He ran an attack piece on Valerie Jarrett, the president's senior adviser, accusing her of Communist ties. It's Beck candy, wrapped up with a big, fat, racist bow.

In an ideal world, the folks who spent the last two weeks screeching about how President Obama would "indoctrinate" America's children by urging them to work hard and stay in school would suffer a loss in influence and stature once those charges turned out to be completely and utterly unfounded. While these kinds of speeches have always been subject to partisan criticisms, the qualitative difference between accusing the President of "indoctrination" and of campaigning on the job is massive.

The ACLU is really happy about the new administration policy of releasing the list of White House visitors, lauding it as "landmark" and releasing this statement from Michael German of their D.C. legislative office:

"The White House is the people's house, and after years of closed doors, Americans will finally know more about who consults the administration on matters of public policy. This is an important and welcome step towards increasing transparency and public accountability.