This is strange coming from such a serious commentator:
In fact, though consumed by the economic crisis in its first 50 days, the Obama administration has nevertheless made some striking moves in foreign policy.
[….]These are initial, small steps but all in the right direction— deserving of praise, one might think. But no, the Washington establishment is mostly fretting, dismayed in one way or another by most of these moves. The conservative backlash has been almost comical in its fury. Two weeks into Obama’s term, Charles Krauthammer lumped together a bunch of Russian declarations and actions—many of them long in the making—and decided that they were all “brazen provocations” that Obama had failed to counter. Obama’s “supine diplomacy,” Krauthammer thundered, was setting off a chain of catastrophes across the globe. The Pakistani government, for example, had obviously sensed weakness in Washington and “capitulated to the Taliban” in the Swat Valley. Somehow Krauthammer missed the many deals that Pakistan struck over the last three years—during Bush’s reign—with the Taliban, deals that were more hastily put together, on worse terms, with poorer results.
Many normally intelligent commentators have joined in the worrying. Leslie Gelb, the author of a smart and lively new book, “Power Rules,” says that Hillary’s comments about China’s human-rights record were correct, but shouldn’t have been said publicly. Peter Bergen of CNN says that “doing deals with the Taliban today could further destabilize Afghanistan.” “It’s change for change’s sake,” Gelb writes ruefully. Ah, if we just kept in place all those Bush-era policies that were working so well.
I guess Zakaria has finally let anti-Semitism get the better of him. That or he’s spent too much time in the fever swamps of the angry left-wing blogs.
Or maybe both.
craigie
At least there’s no chance of him apologizing to Rush.
GSD
Fareed Zakaria is an anagram for Black Muslim Caliphate.
-GSD
sarah
OT: DougJ bait – Michael Scherer on Politico
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/03/15/time-blogger-the-politico-is-transforming-our-approach-to-news/
he should have titled it TIME Blogger: Why I’m A Bad Reporter. ridiculous
Comrade Stuck
We are seeing Obama gaslight not only the wingnuts, but the nattering Villagers as well. Just like he did with Hills and Mccain. They are desperate to find chinks in his armor by dragging out every stale canard they can get their bony little fingers on. In that way he is kind of like Reagan, with his cheery optimism, Obama does it with a supreme intellect and an ability to communicate it in simple and understandable terms. Mix that with a kind of ho-hum candidness and it drives the turdhunters up the wall.
Obama’s only real opponent is reality itself. the reality of a truly fucked up mess left by repubs and Bush. The jury is still out on whether it can be unfucked before the public wants back their American Dream and white picket fence.
Nellcote
Be nice to Fareed. He has the only Sunday show worth watching.
moe99
Help! My irony meter is broken after 8 years of overuse.
I assume tongue was firmly in cheek there, eh?
Steeplejack
My take on this whole genre of shocked and dismayed posts by the Village pundits is that they fundamentally can’t believe that Obama meant it when he talked about change, and, further, they can’t believe that it’s actually starting to happen (albeit too slowly, for some).
It’s like they have the blinders on so tight that they just can’t believe there’s any way to do things other than the preëmptive, "You’re for us or against us," lone-superpower way that we have become encrusted in over the last 20 years. Sure, Obama will put a different face on it, maybe twiddle a few knobs here and there, but, c’mon, this is how we have to deal with the rest of the world, right? Right? [crickets]
So their first, frightened reaction is: "He’s doing it wrong!"
Delia
I, for one, am shocked and worried that the George and Dick Show didn’t manage to get Iran bombed by the end of their tenure. Then we wouldn’t have all these little anti-Semites running around trying to clean up US foreign policy and giving good people liking Charlie Krauthammer something to bloviate about all day and all night. We’d just have our nice little World War Six or Seven or whatever number they think we’re up to by now.
Steeplejack
Couldn’t find the money quote that I wanted before. Here it is:
Zakaria says it better than I did.
a giant slor
It’s hard to parody right-wing bluster nowadays, since they’re parodies of themselves. If I didn’t know better, I’d think this was a wingnut blog.
Brandon T
Twitter. The unfiltered interaction of "opinion-makers" with the hoi polloi is turning them all into Joe Kleins…
TenguPhule
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Comrade Darkness
There was an op ed by Rich in the NYT about how little fanfare there was surrounding Obama’s reversal of the stem cell rule. It’s not just that the economic crisis has screwed heads on straighter. It’s more than that. The expectation gap is stunning. Obama undoes all of these major Bush policies and it’s almost meaningless, as if everyone is just saying, well of course he’s just doing that. It’s easy. But during the Bush regime this kind of sh*t required literally years of garment rending and lectures about presidenting being hard work.
Rich points out also that Bush working out his first major speech about stem cells distracted him from the memo about bin laden’s intentions, and al qaeda hijacking airplanes (and yes the briefing mentions that)).
kdaug
Just finished Fareed’s "The Post-American World" (not the end of USA, but the fall of empire and the rise of India and China). Well-recommended.
Also, can’t recommend highly enough Thom Geoghegan’s article in the current (dead-tree) issue of Harper’s explaining how we got into this mess. If you don’t get the mag, should be online soon.
DougJ
Yes.
Chuck Butcher
While I don’t agree with Zakaria fairly frequently and generally on the basis of his selection process for the data he uses to get to his conclusions, I do admire his reasoning processes. He is a smart guy who is often willing to step outside accepted frameworks to get to reasonable approaches to problems. For people with regular programming he’s in the top tier. Given the competition…
mistermix
@Steeplejack: That is the money quote, but Fareed forgot to add the part in parens:
Israel gets a full pass. China is supposed to get an occasional, meaningless public scolding.
Lese Majeste
Zakaria is just another smooth taking Harvard intellectual who was one of the cheerleaders for the Iraq War.
His smooth demeanor is useful to calm the simmering masses when they start asking too many questions about why we started that war and who benefits.
Bulworth
@Steeplejack:
Wow. Dude really is shrill. Does he have Bush derangement syndrome?
MattF
It looks to me like Newsweek is positioning itself a teeny-weeny itsy-bitsy-bitsy bit to the left of center. I’m stunned.
Balconespolitics
Cue Limbaugh attack on Zakaria as part of the "drive by media" in 3 … 2 … 1 …
Fencedude
Wow, he sounds…pissed.
Balconespolitics
@MattF:
Newsweek has certainly been the most willing of the major weeklies to act as if the center of the debate in America wasn’t about 25 degrees to the right of where polling says that American’s opinions actually come down on issues like healthcare, progressive taxation, social security, militarism abroad, etc.
Remember the article that Newsweek had on the stands the week of 9/11/2001? It was a major writeup on Bush v Gore, and how the Supreme Court short-circuited the process and picked a POTUS. By right wing standards, they’ve shown symptoms of BDS for years.
Atanarjuat
@Comrade Stuck:
C’mon, CS, fess up. You wrote with shimmering eyes and a look of reverent awe on your face, didn’t you?
Indeed, Obama’s resplendent nimbus does blind his nodding minions — CS included.
-A
Napoleon
@Balconespolitics:
I know that this is years ago and so does not necessarily tell you much about the magazines today, but while getting my history degree in the early 80’s I did a big paper on some aspect of the Vietnam War that occurred in the 60’s (roughly 15 years earlier) and as part of it I went through stories in Newsweek, Time and US News, and Newsweek was closest to running a balanced account that held up well with time, whereas Time was clearly running the establishment line and US News appeared to be running Pentagon news releases without edit.
JD Rhoades
IIRC, Obama being seen with that book in hand was touted as proof positive he was part of the International Moooslim Conspirrusy to Destroy Amuricah.
Balconespolitics
@Napoleon:
Huh … the more things change …
Napoleon
@Balconespolitics:
You said it. My review was 25 years ago, and the original reporting 40 years ago, and yet I could be talking about today.
kommrade reproductive vigor
While anyone who wants to give Charlie Goathammer a kick is all right by me, I don’t much care for the suggestion that he’s part of the Washington establishment. I have never, ever, ever, met anyone who cites that putz as an authority on anything.
I suspect even people who want to agree with him are put off by his writing style: Equal parts blustering condescension and whinge, not to mention the frequent bouts of hysteria.
Meanwhile, the Post is chopping the business section from its weekday edition in order to save money.
Like the ad said, if you don’t get it…
Comrade Stuck
@Atanarjuat:
Don’t know Atanut, but compared to the cackling monkus Bush, Obama is an Einstein of the first degree, as is my Parakeet.
P.S. – Have you received your Obama prayer beads yet? They will change your life, swear to Allah.
David
Wingnut Alert Level Rises to Red:
‘At that point I have shown to [Chief Justice] Roberts a stack of papers, that I held. Those were my pleadings and printouts that I got from WorldNetDaily. It contained your names, names of about 350,000 that signed the petition. (there were others that have written individual letters,) . Roberts stated "I will read your documents, I will review them. Give them to my Secret Service Agent and I will review them"’
http://defendourfreedoms.us/2009/03/14/i-did-it.aspx
SGEW
@David:
Shorter Chief Justice Roberts:
"Start an FBI file on that man and put him under observation."
jibeaux
I agree that Zakaria is underrated…he’s a sharp guy.
NonyNony
@mistermix:
Israel has, historically, done what our foreign policy apparatus has wanted it to do – be our colony in the Middle East. The fact that the puppet master has apparently forgotten who is supposed to be the puppet is one of the aspects of our system of representative democracy that I find utterly fascinating in the abstract (though sad and horrible in the real world).
China is "too big to stop". If China wants to do something, we can kick, we can scream, we can scold, we can as the UN to shame them, or we can give money to whoever the Chinese are acting against. But we can’t actually stop them from doing anything they want to do. Much as China can’t actually stop the US from doing what we want to do. So China doesn’t get a pass because of any kind of "special relationship" or other blather, it gets a pass because we can’t actually stop them from doing what they do. This was the same thing with the Soviets, back in the day, but we were less polite about our screaming and kicking, and we didn’t bother trying to use "shame" – shame only works if the group you’re trying to shame wants to be part of your community (as China does), not if they think your community sucks and are off on their own trying to build their own (as the Soviets did).
(Given the fucked up dynamic, is it any wonder that Iran might want a goddamn nuke? If the only way to get the US off your back is to make the people in charge afraid of you, you’re going to have every incentive to make them as scared as possible. Stupid cowboy diplomacy.)
jibeaux
@David:
Oh, Heavens, that’s funny. Because that’s how Supreme Court jurisprudence works. They review random suitcases full of documents passed to them by the pathologically insane.
My heart aches for this guy, though. When will America realize the sacrifices he has made in not hearing his son sing Elvis Presley opera so that we might all be spared the reign of terror that is Barack Hussein Soetoro Obama?
jibeaux
Correction. The pathologically insane person is a woman. Who was not born in the United States. And who is evidently attorney for "Ambassador" Alan Keyes. Ye gods, what is Alan Keyes ambassador to?
AhabTRuler
The People’s Republic of WTF?
Face
"Fareed"?
Sounds like a terrorist to me.
NonyNony
@jibeaux:
Not "is", "was". Ambassador is one of those titles you get to use for the rest of your life, even if your service was performed years ago. Like "Senator" or "President".
Keyes was an ambassador to the UN during the Reagan administration. According to his wiki page, he wasn’t actually THE US Ambassador to the UN (which is what I thought he was – hey, W appointed John Bolton after all), but rather sat on the UN Economic and Social Council. He was also in the State Department in the 70s.
I thought his diplomatic career was more illustrious than that. The way people on the teevee like to emphasize his title of Ambassador, I figured he was Ambassador to Luxemborg or something like that. But no, he actually did some real work at one point (to the extent that the Reagan administration wanted work done on the Economic and Social Council of the UN, which probably meant that he was stonewalling as much as he was working…)
jibeaux
@AhabTRuler:
The Democratic Republic of the Psycholo…Hey, Are You Going To Finish Your Jell-O?
There’s a lot of comedy gold to be found here, I’m just drawing a blank right now. Mondays, eh?
Ash Can
I don’t think that planet’s been discovered yet.
jibeaux
@NonyNony:
Yes, I figured that Barack Obama had not made Alan Keyes an ambassador to anything. It was more in the vein of "invitation to snark".
dollar general spice crustaceanette
Well, there is a guy from Newsweek on Washington Journal talking about their investigation into filthy-rich Americans’ Swiss bank accounts. I must admit, I was a tad surprised that Newsweek would dare take on our gods of prosperity from which all good things spring forth. And then I read the above. Interesting.
Napoleon
Does that make you an ambassador? I would be surprised if it does.
KCinDC
I like that "many normally intelligent commentators" is being contrasted with Krauthammer (even if those commentators aren’t so intelligent).
Steeplejack
@Bulworth:
Don’t we all?!
Dennis-SGMM
@Steeplejack:
The Washington establishment is comfortable with American exceptionalism because they are convinced of their own exceptional nature. They know that the masses, ignorant and unwashed, require the benefit of their exceptional insights. Absent the guidance of the Wills, Gersons, and Broders we’re liable to just think up any old thing based on our experience and then believe it. We owe them a debt of gratitude for stooping to correct us, just as the benighted peoples of all those countries from Vietnam to Iraq owe America a debt of gratitude for stooping to correct them.
mistermix
@NonyNony: What bugs me about the "brave" neocons like Krauthammer is that they don’t even bother to mention China anymore. What was once a Red Menace is now "move along, nothing to see here. By the way, did you hear what Ahmadinejad said yesterday?"
Mike in NC
The US and Chinese economies are now interwoven to the point that they will sink or swim together. See the current article in the Atlantic by James Fallows: "Interesting Times".
Balconespolitics
@mistermix:
Even worse, you have wingnuts citing failure to be properly deferential to china as a sign that Obama’s foreign policy is a fail.
jcricket
It’s getting hard to tell who the "real liberals" are anymore with all these formerly sensible centrists getting shrill…
Steve Finlay
What is wrong with Zakaria’s comments? He is reporting shrill and stupid comments by other people. His own comments are calm and make sense.
Oracle
DougJ: destroying irony meters since 2004.
BigSwami
Wow, tough words from Fareed "Senselessly moderate about everything" Zakaria.
someguy
He’s like Jesus really, except his followers aren’t annoying sycophants.
Comrade Stuck
Nope, we have all agreed he is the Magical Unity Pony.
Arachnae
Dear God…
Arachnae
Steve:
there’s nothing wrong with them. "Shrill’ has been appropriated by the left to mean ‘talking sense’ after so many sense-talking leftists were called ‘shrill’ by their insane rightwing counterparts.
Comrade Stuck
Yea right. No Muslim would be caught dead as Jesus. Geesh!
Git with the program infidel.
b-psycho
@David:
LOL…somehow her name being "Orly" is appropriate.
bostondreams
You know, for a lawyer, that Orly Taitz woman is remarkably ignorant of Constitutional law. Hawaii is US soil, therefore Obama is a citizen. Fourteenth Amendment, basic Constitutional law. And even if Obama were impeached, that would not lead to some sort of ‘President pro tempore’ (as she put it) until a new election could be held. Biden would be president to serve the rest of the term.
My high school US History students know this. What an idiot.
Deborah
If the Russians are attempting to engage in "brazen provocation" they’re failing spectacularly. (What was invading Georgia, on this scale?)
As for Pakistan, the increasing focus on the messy situation among the Pashtun along the Paki-Afghani border was something Obama cited as the proper focus of our anti-terrorism efforts for at least 2 years, so the disingenuousness needed to claim that one is shocked, shocked to find Pakistan unstable just suggests someone desperately not paying attention. (Like the GOP ideal voter, who is also completely unaware of the GOP voting record on deficits previous to this February.)
Cal Gal
I heart Fareed Zakaria.
I used to heart Keith Olbermann, but now I heart Fareed.