This Dept. of Commerce press release is pretty remarkable in its candor regarding its disappointment with ICANN, while simultaneously renewing its agreement with ICANN for a year (alternatives would have been transitioning control of the DNS to ICANN, or firing it and starting from scratch.  Neither alternative was plausible).

There’s something here for everyone who hates ICANN – a warning that ICANN should stick to technical management, and an aside that it should avoid being the government of the Internet.  That is properly the job for [fill in your answer here].

UPDATE:  Given that the title is getting quoted by icann.blog, I want to wimp out and add that I don’t hate ICANN.  I think it has the textbook no-win situation because, in part, it operates in an environment where everyone is self-professed expert, but because this is a novel area, no one’s expertise is all that helpful.  It seems to me that DoC’s comments will actually make ICANN’s job even harder.