President Obama talked about himself, America, and the world in a series of interviews with Jeffrey Goldberg. I have been jotting notes on those interviews. On the homepage today, we have Part II.
Obama said some interesting things about Reagan. He said, or implied, that the Grenada operation was essentially a matter of boosting Reagan’s popularity at home. He said that Reagan supported “right-wing paramilitaries” in Nicaragua. (Ex-Contras would testify differently.) He gives Reagan credit for diplomacy with Gorbachev, however.
But think of everything that Reagan did that led to that diplomacy. Would Obama have done the same? If someone such as Barack Obama had taken office in 1981, would the country have been in the same shape in the middle and late 1980s?
Anyway, all of this is fodder for my notes. Goldberg has done a service in conducting and writing up those interviews, and Obama has done a service by sitting for them. And speaking with great candor, as far as I can tell.