The Insiders: Factors that could change our political orbit in
the coming years  As we head into the doldrums of summer and the
lame-duck portion of President Obama’s term, multiple events are
still roiling our politics and shaping the next two electoral
cycles.  Whatever one thinks of Edward Snowden’s revelations
about the NSA data-gathering, his world tour so far has been
humiliating to the United States and possibly very damaging to
our already contentious and deteriorating relations with the
world’s other leading powers. If the body language between
Vladimir Putin and President Obama was frosty at the recent
Group of Eight meeting, how might we describe it now? As cold as
Siberian permafrost? Well, we might, except permafrost is
melting. Along those lines, Mr. Obama is delivering tomorrow
what the White House is promoting as a “major” speech on
combating climate change. Meanwhile, the immigration bill seems
poised to pass the U.S. Senate but fail in the House. Oh, and
Hillary Clinton said recently that it