Now that there is an Iran deal, President Obama has started the lobbying and started as he did after the April non-deal: "Hey! Get Friedman over here."
When I first saw that I thought the Quasis had put the pic of the April plant over Friedman's new column. "Says July 14...But that is identical to the still from April..." Read a little of the column, Sure enough! New interview, same setting, same positioning, same length--45 minutes. That's the story-plant room, I guess. There's the East Room, the Lincoln Bedroom, the Story-plant Room.
You can watch it and read Friedman's learned commentary for yourself here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/opinion/thomas-friedman-obama-makes-his-case-on-iran-nuclear-deal.html?_r=0. I have not watched and only skimmed the column; the agreement itself is 109 pages and I haven't even tried to read that either, probably a lot of big words. My opinion on the agreement is probably going to be determined like a lot of yours, a lot of ours, is on big, long, technical stuff: We listen to what the experts who know the meaning of all those big words say, we listen to a reasonable cross-section, filter out those who tend to froth, listen (or read) closely and between the lines, and then just decide. I guess I have already. I'm against it. I was against whatever it was that April thing was; unless this is somehow meaningfully different, I'm against it. Maybe that's why I skimmed and didn't watch, But I'll keep an open mind! Reading closely and between the lines, Obama has just seemed to me to have been too eager in this thing, I don't know why, but he was go-ing...to do...this...DEAL.
So, I'm presumptively and tentatively against this deal and therefore the most interesting thing for me in this plant was not about Iran. It was this:
Asked if President Vladimir Putin of Russia was a help or a hindrance in concluding this deal, Mr. Obama said: “Russia was a help on this. I’ll be honest with you. I was not sure given the strong differences we are having with Russia right now around Ukraine, whether this would sustain itself. Putin and the Russian government compartmentalized on this in a way that surprised me, and we would have not achieved this agreement had it not been for Russia’s willingness to stick with us and the other P5-Plus members in insisting on a strong deal."
You can watch it and read Friedman's learned commentary for yourself here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/opinion/thomas-friedman-obama-makes-his-case-on-iran-nuclear-deal.html?_r=0. I have not watched and only skimmed the column; the agreement itself is 109 pages and I haven't even tried to read that either, probably a lot of big words. My opinion on the agreement is probably going to be determined like a lot of yours, a lot of ours, is on big, long, technical stuff: We listen to what the experts who know the meaning of all those big words say, we listen to a reasonable cross-section, filter out those who tend to froth, listen (or read) closely and between the lines, and then just decide. I guess I have already. I'm against it. I was against whatever it was that April thing was; unless this is somehow meaningfully different, I'm against it. Maybe that's why I skimmed and didn't watch, But I'll keep an open mind! Reading closely and between the lines, Obama has just seemed to me to have been too eager in this thing, I don't know why, but he was go-ing...to do...this...DEAL.
So, I'm presumptively and tentatively against this deal and therefore the most interesting thing for me in this plant was not about Iran. It was this:
Asked if President Vladimir Putin of Russia was a help or a hindrance in concluding this deal, Mr. Obama said: “Russia was a help on this. I’ll be honest with you. I was not sure given the strong differences we are having with Russia right now around Ukraine, whether this would sustain itself. Putin and the Russian government compartmentalized on this in a way that surprised me, and we would have not achieved this agreement had it not been for Russia’s willingness to stick with us and the other P5-Plus members in insisting on a strong deal."
