DAY’S END ROUNDUP

President-elect Barack Obama won’t end Islamic terrorism with a speech, conservative bloggers declare after news that Obama is considering delivering a major address in an Islamic capital. Liberals, meanwhile, wonder why Democratic Sen. Diannie Feinstein (Calif.) seemingly changed her tune on torture with a comment earlier this week.

Oratory is the least effective weapon against terrorism, Abe Greenwald asserts at contentions after The New York Times reported Obama’s consideration. If Obama travels to an Islamic capital to make a speech (Cairo is reportedly the leading candidate), he will end up looking more liberal than President Jimmy Carter while Islamic radicals around the world laugh at him, Dan Riehl proposes at Riehl World View.

Feinstein, who will take over the chairmanship of the Senate Intelligence Committee next year, has backtracked on her consistent opposition to torture, Salon’s Glenn Greenwald writes after Feinstein said this week that, in some extreme cases, anti-torture rules could be bent. Feinstein has since asserted that she still thinks the Army Field Manual should be standard policy for interrogations, but ATTACKERMAN’s Spencer Ackerman wonders if her comment reflects pressure from some unknown faction in the new administration to use torture.

Former Vice President Al Gore, meanwhile, earns plaudits from Open Left’s Matt Stoller for a new campaign against “clean coal.” With a new website and an ad campaign, Gore and other environmental groups are warning Americans that the sought-after “clean coal” technology doesn’t exist yet, Stoller notes, while MyDD’s desmoinesdem praises the humor of the campaign’s first ad.

FROM THE BLOGS:
Matthews Boomlet – kos, Daily Kos
Al Gore Takes On Clean Coal – Matt Stoller, Open Left
Fred Thompson Goes Retro – Matt Lewis, Townhall.com
Auto Requests – Jeff Emanuel, RedState
Franken Says He’s Up by 10 – Todd Beeton, MyDD
Audio: Ros-Lehtinen on Obama Hang-Up – Allahpundit, Hot Air
Bailout Nation – Larry Kudlow, The Corner
Why Not Baghdad? – Michael Goldfarb, The Weekly Standard
Flip a Coin? – Big Tent Democrat, TalkLeft
Mukasy to Obama: How the Game Is Played – looseheadprop, Firedoglake

OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Big Three Face Tough Questions from Senators – The Hill
Clinton’s Nomination Popular, but Is It Constitutional? – CNN
Looking for the Ideal Spot to Make a Speech – NY Times