From Mike Allen's morning newsletter.
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POTUS VIDEO INTERVIEW with THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, spread over 5 of 6 columns of today's N.Y. Times Op-Ed page, "Obama on the World: What did the president have to say about Iraq and Israel?": "[H]aving had a chance to spend an hour touring the horizon with him in the White House Map Room late Friday afternoon, it's clear that the president has a take on the world, ... and he has feisty answers for all his foreign policy critics. Obama made clear that he is only going to involve America more deeply in places like the Middle East to the extent that the different communities there agree to an inclusive politics of no victor/no vanquished. The United States is not going to be the air force of Iraqi Shiites or any other faction.
"Despite Western sanctions, he cautioned, President Vladimir Putin of Russia 'could invade' Ukraine at any time, and, if he does, 'trying to find our way back to a cooperative functioning relationship with Russia during the remainder of my term will be much more difficult.' Intervening in Libya to prevent a massacre was the right thing to do, Obama argued, but doing it without sufficient follow-up on the ground to manage Libya's transition to more democratic politics is probably his biggest foreign policy regret.
"At the end of the day , the president mused, the biggest threat to America - the only force that can really weaken us - is us. We have so many things going for us right now as a country - from new energy resources to innovation to a growing economy - but, he said, we will never realize our full potential unless our two parties adopt the same outlook that we're asking of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds or Israelis and Palestinians: No victor, no vanquished and work together. 'Our politics are dysfunctional,' said the president, and we should heed the terrible divisions in the Middle East as a 'warning to us: societies don't work if political factions take maximalist positions. And the more diverse the country is, the less it can afford to take maximalist positions.'
"While he blamed the rise of the Republican far right for extinguishing so many potential compromises, Obama also acknowledged that gerrymandering, the Balkanization of the news media and uncontrolled money in politics - the guts of our political system today - are sapping our ability to face big challenges together, more than any foreign enemy. 'Increasingly politicians are rewarded for taking the most extreme maximalist positions,' he said, 'and sooner or later, that catches up with you.' nyti.ms |
