'Sorry' seems to be the hardest word

A good piece on the whole spying controversy. It seems the U.S. owes the E.U. an apology if the ambitious trade agreement is to become reality.

The Candidates

Who will be the next High Representative for EU Foreign Policy? Or President of the European Council? Jon Worth writes good pieces on the subject. Go to his blog and see why.

Political Procrastination: Jimmy Fallon, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Roots, and Pema Levy join forces

Been trying to find some funny blogposts or tweets regarding American or European politics, but for some reason it's hard. Why isn't Jimmy Fallon a hard-core pol blogger? While looking for the before-mentioned, I was led to this (don't ask how):

Alright, enough procrastination. Pema Levy's actually pretty funny in her tweets, so do check her out. She's done nice work for The American Prospect and Talking Points Memo, too. Plus she's cute.

Building Bridges

I had actually decided to write about the prospects of further E.U.-U.S. cooperation, but it seems that Foreign Affairs beat me to it. An excellent piece here: For Transatlantic Trade, This Time Is Different.

Needed: Reasonable Republicans

Now that the dust has settled from the recent American presidential election it's time for the Republican Party to think about where to go from here.

This time around they chose a fairly mainstream candidate with a right-pandering sidekick. Pretty much like last time when Senator John McCain ran partnering up with then Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. In fact, the GOP has moved so far to the right that not even Ronald Reagan would receive his party's nomination were he to seek it today, according to Jeb Bush and Chuck Hagel.

While choosing a vicepresidential candidate that creates a lot of excitement among the base has been the strategy since 2008, we can conclude that it hasn't worked. Substantial losses in both elections forces the GOP to rethink its strategy for 2016.

So who should they choose next?

Bobby Jindal was mentioned by Time Magazine as a potential VP candidate in 2008. Now, he is mentioned as a pick for the presidential ticket for 2016. Recently, he critized his party for being 'stupid'. Maybe a candidate who refuses to pander to the right will be a more effective strategy that will win over moderates.

Jeb Bush - whose name may be his biggest liability - is another choice. His major strength is his rapport with the Latinamerican community, which is widely regarded as becoming more and more important.

Chris Christie scored good points with moderates when he applauded President Obama's handling of hurricane Sandy.

On paper, Mitt Romney was a middle-of-the-road Republican: white, self-made, and a Harvard graduate. Yet, he  failed. It might be time to follow a different path.