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Here is a first round of reflections on Clinton's speech on Internet freedom:

1. I was taken aback by how much Cold War rhetoric she managed to work into it. Multiple references to 1989, fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of the Information Iron Curtain (as Friedmanesque a metaphor as it gets). It's as if the last 20 years and globalization did not happen. The view of authoritarianism that she articulated in the speech smacked of a memo written by a bunch of confused Kremlinologists. I guess no sane American politician would ever acknowledge that information could be the opium of the masses, but acting as if today's Russians, Iranians, or Chinese are totally cut off from information/travel/globalization is kind of silly. The very thought that authoritarianism can survive in the...