Los K con Clinton

It was the best of times: Néstor and Cristina traveled to NYC, El Pingüino spoke to the annual U.N. event-a-thon about Iran and AMIA, and Los K sat down with Bill Clinton (though not Hillary) to bask in the man's stardust. But, sadly, economic and government irritations kept impinging on the honeymoon. Transparency International released its annual list of Perceived Corruption, and Argentina ranked 105 out of 180 countries (tied with Bolivia, Djibouti and Burkina Faso), while the World Bank's Doing Business index placed Argentina 109 out of 178 in terms of ease of doing business. Of course, as one reader comment pointed out in the forum tied either to the La Nación or Clarín story on the Transparency International index, that index measures perceptions of corruption, not corruption per se; still, if semantics is your only defense, you got problems. "It depends what the meaning of the word 'is' is" doesn't work so well--just as Bill Clinton.

Also, after a speech she gave in front of the Council of the Americas, a U.S. free market business group, Cristina got panned by financial analysts for the lack of specifics about inflation, the national debt, and her plans if elected. In an article in La Nación, Daniel Kerner, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, called her speech "a lack of respect,"and said, "It left the same doubts there were before the meeting." (Of course, La Nación tends to be anti-K, so the description of her bombing in front of the Council members should be taken in that context.)

But at least Los K looked great touching Clinton's hands (above). Even better: "La reunión fue estupenda," Cristina said of their chat with the Man from Hope.