Week In The News: Clinton, Obama, More Trouble In Syria

Democrats make their case for Obama.  Bill Clinton chips in big.  The president takes the stage.  Iranian weapons back Syria’s Assad.  Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

It was the Democrats’ week, out of Charlotte and their national convention. Bill Clinton stole the show for speech-making.  A full-throated endorsement of Term Two for Barack Obama.

And President Obama himself – a sober leader this week, saying the country’s comeback will not be quick or easy but he wants to do it right.  With that, plus Tampa, the table is set for November.  New jobs numbers down.  Stocks hit a four-year high.  Neil Armstrong will be buried at sea.

This hour, On Point:  our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.
-Tom Ashbrook

Neil King, Jr., political reporter for the Wall Street Journal.

Gail Chaddock, Washington political editor at the Christian Science Monitor.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst.

The New York Times "Mitt Romney has been criticized for not discussing foreign policy. Give him a break. He probably figures he’s already said all that he needs to say during the primaries: He has a big stick, and he is going to use it on Day 1. Or as he put it: “If I’m president of the United States ... on Day 1, I will declare China a currency manipulator, allowing me to put tariffs on products where they are stealing American jobs unfairly."

Foreign Policy "The lack of a clearly defined narrative about Afghanistan, combined with election noise and economic worries in the United States, has pushed the war out of the American consciousness. In recent weeks, the spate of insider attacks put it back on the media's map, temporarily. But the next several months will in many ways shape the U.S. exit between now and December 2014. Soon, we will learn how many troops will remain in the country."