Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) did his best to Hillary Clinton to President Obama as he offered sharp criticism of the “Obama-Clinton” foreign policy, the New York Times reports.
Said Cruz: “The failures of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy are manifest. It’s almost as if the whole world is on fire right now.”
“We pose no threat to anyone and do not intend to get involved in any geopolitical games or intrigues, let alone conflicts, no matter who tries to draw us into them or how they do so.”
— Russian President Vladimir Putin, quoted by Reuters.
New York Times: “With a deadline approaching, Mr. Kerry thought the opportunity could be lost unless the Iranians finally offered a breakthrough compromise. But Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, came with little new. Frustrated, Mr. Kerry said there was no way the United States would accept a deal that did not curb Iran’s ability to produce enough fuel for a bomb within a year. The conversation grew heated. The two men, patricians in their own cultures and unaccustomed to shouting, found themselves in the kind of confrontation they had avoided during multiple negotiating sessions over the past year.”
Said one American official: “This was the first time there were raised voices and some unpleasant exchanges.”
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“You cannot put women and men on an equal footing. It is against nature.”
— Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, quoted by the BBC, accusing feminists of rejecting motherhood.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) will introduce a measure in the U.S. Senate next month to declare war on the Islamic State, the Daily Beast reports.
“The move is part of Paul’s ongoing campaign to position himself as a foreign-policy heavyweight ahead of the Republican presidential primaries, when he is expected to mount a campaign for the nomination. But it may simply be dismissed as a tit-for-tat gesture as Republicans complain of executive overreach in the aftermath of President Obama’s executive order on immigration.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]A very clever move that helps quell doubts about Paul’s desire to use the military abroad while at the same time reasserting congressional authority.[/speech_bubble]
“We’re starting it in July of 2011 and we’re going to be totally out of there, come hell or high water, by 2014.”
— Vice President Joe Biden, quoted by the Telegraph in 2010, not foreseeing President Obama’s expansion of the military effort in Afghanistan this month.
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]Brace yourself for hell or high water. [/speech_bubble]
“A House report on the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, concludes that the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. military responded properly and that Obama administration ‘talking points’ were flawed, but didn’t find that administration officials attempted to mislead the public,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The two-year-long investigation by the Republican-led House intelligence committee is the latest congressional probe to examine the attacks, and its conclusions deflate allegations suggesting misconduct by the Obama administration.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]An interesting Friday news dump from House Republicans.[/speech_bubble]
“President Obama decided in recent weeks to authorize a more expansive mission for the military in Afghanistan in 2015 than originally planned, a move that ensures American troops will have a direct role in fighting in the war-ravaged country for at least another year,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Obama’s order allows American forces to carry out missions against the Taliban and other militant groups threatening American troops or the Afghan government, a broader mission than the president described to the public earlier this year… The new authorization also allows American jets, bombers and drones to support Afghan troops on combat missions.”
[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]It’s increasingly likely that President Obama will leave office after 8 years with troops still in Iraq and Afghanistan.[/speech_bubble]
New York Times: “Today, Mr. Obama needs a foreign policy accomplishment more than ever, and he sees time running out on his hope of changing the calculus in a Middle East where Americans are, against his instincts, back on the ground. But the forces arrayed against a deal are formidable — not just Mr. Khamenei and the country’s hard-liners, but newly empowered Republicans, some of his fellow Democrats, and many of the United States’ closest allies.”
“Yet even if a deal is struck it will be the beginning of an argument, rather than the end of one. For many of the president’s adversaries, the details of whatever deal he emerges with — how much warning the West would have if Iran raced for a bomb, for example — are almost beside the point.”
“Jihadi John, the Briton who beheaded two British and two American hostages held by Islamic State terrorists, has been injured in a US-led air strike, according to reports received by the Foreign Office,” the Daily Mail reports.
“The masked ‘executioner’ with a London accent is believed to have narrowly escaped death when he attended a summit of the group’s leaders in an Iraqi town close to the Syrian border last Saturday. The meeting was targeted by American and Iraqi jets.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times reports President Obama confirmed the beheading of Peter Kassig saying he “was taken from us in an act of pure evil by a terrorist group.”
“Muslims discovered the Americas, not Columbus — or at least that’s what the president of Turkey wants people to believe,” the New York Post reports.
Said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: “Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus. Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th century. Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast.”
“The Spanish-employed sailor did speak of a mosque in his personal diary, which was published in 1996, but the notion has been widely considered to be a misunderstanding and should instead be viewed as a metaphor for the shape of the landscape. The fact that no Islamic structures have been unearthed that pre-date Columbus also debunks Erdogan’s claims.”
USA Today: “Obama eschewed the Red Flag limousine service that ferried other leaders one by one from a nearby building to a banquet, cultural show and fireworks at the aquatic venue. Some Chinese went online to criticize his preference for the familiar security of a U.S.-supplied vehicle, while others understood his choice, but what happened next surprised many here.”
“Obama emerged from his car chewing gum; he’s a well-known user of Nicorette, the smoking-cessation gum. But Chinese Internet users, accustomed to the highly formal standards of their stiff party leadership, quickly characterized the leader of the world’s most powerful nation as an impolite ‘idler,’ or careless ‘rapper.'”
“Of all the areas where Barack Obama and John McCain clashed during the 2008 presidential campaign, none was more combustible than defense, with their starkly different views on the deployment of American men and women to wage war overseas,” the New York Times reports.
“Now, Senator McCain is expected to assume the chairmanship of the Senate Armed Services Committee, with its congressional purview over all things national security, including the Pentagon budget and President Obama’s prosecution of the war on the Islamic State.”
“The world is on the brink of a new Cold War. Some are even saying that it’s already begun.”
— Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, quoted by the Associated Press.
“American slaves were liberated in 1861, but did not get voting rights until 107 years later. So why can’t Hong Kong wait for a while?”
— Hong Kong Executive Council Member Laura Cha, quoted by The Standard.
The State Department has named former Sen. Gary Hart (D-CO) to be its newest envoy to Northern Ireland, the AP reports.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Hart “will help smooth negotiations in the new round of power-sharing talks among the government’s five-party coalition.”
Foreign Policy: “What first sounded like something straight out of a Tom Clancy novel is turning out to be Moscow’s first serious test of Western resolve since the invasion of Crimea earlier this year. While details are patchy and the situation is still unfolding, three separate credible eyewitness accounts and a photo showing a dark structure descending into the shallow waters of the Baltic Sea seem to confirm the presence of a foreign submarine or mini-sub some 30 miles from Stockholm. If so, this would be a major escalation of tensions in the Baltic Sea region.”
“Adding to the mystery are other reports of a North Sea-bound Russian container ship sailing under a Liberian flag hovering outside Swedish territorial waters. Defense analysts have speculated that this might be the submarine’s mother ship. In response to these chilling developments, the Swedish military has launched one of its biggest military operations in decades, involving some 200 men, a number of stealth ships, minesweepers, and helicopters to locate the suspected sub and its crew.”
New York Times: “No one knows if the Obama administration will manage in the next five weeks to strike what many in the White House consider the most important foreign policy deal of his presidency: an accord with Iran that would forestall its ability to make a nuclear weapon. But the White House has made one significant decision: If agreement is reached, President Obama will do everything in his power to avoid letting Congress vote on it.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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