On Tuesday's Morning Joe, MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski felt sorry for President Obama and all the crises overseas that he is currently facing: "You look at just the President, and the incoming on foreign policy crises, I think it's possibly unprecedented, except for extreme times of war."
Moments earlier, the morning newscast played a montage of video clips looking back at all the tumultuous events from the summer. Joe Scarborough expressed his disbelief at the amount of chaos, while Brzezinski replied to the mash-up by setting up her lament for the chief executive: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
JOE SCARBOROUGH: It's really unbelievable. It's really unbelievable everything that happened this summer – so many bad images out there-
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: It – unlike any other-
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah-
SCARBOROUGH: But that was – you know, we hear all the time about how things moved so much faster in the '60s – and they did. Things just kept coming – you know, certain years – at everybody so quickly. And it happened again this past summer. And you look back – my God.
The MSNBC co-host then made her "unprecedented" claim about what President Obama faces, nevermind the past crises outside times of war his predecessors had to handle. Scarborough then turned to contributor Mike Barnicle for his take on recent events, and he seconded the two hosts' superlatives:
SCARBOROUGH: Mike [Barnicle], it has been – it's just been an extraordinary summer – so many low moments. Let's – I think a lot of Americans are just catching their breath and holding – hoping.
MIKE BARNICLE: I think – I think most Americans are weary of what is – of what is – the cascade of events, both domestic and international, over the past three months has been nearly overwhelming – nearly overwhelming.
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah. It really has.
This isn't the first time that NBC News personality has bewailed the foreign policy situation for President Obama. On the March 29, 2011 edition of NBC's Today, former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw zeroed in on the violence in Libya and the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan as he touted the difficult situation for the Democratic politician:
MATT LAUER: You mentioned something to me when you first walked in the studio this morning. You said that you haven't, in your memory, you can't recall a time where a president has faced a confluence of events, like the confluence of events taking place right now. Just explain that.
TOM BROKAW: Well in my adult lifetime. Certainly, FDR did have these challenges. But in my adult lifetime and as a reporter, here you have a president who has two wars underway, is engaged in really what is a third war. The world's third largest economy, Japan, has been gravely wounded by a tsunami and an earthquake - now has a nuclear meltdown. One of the principle members of the President's national security team said to me last night, "I'm more worried about that, than I am about Libya." And then we have, here at home, a recession that we cannot completely get out of yet. And political paralysis in Washington over the budget. All of that has arrived at, at the Oval Office, at the same time. Now when presidents get elected, that's their job. Is to take on the big, the big assignments, the big challenges. But there have been few that have come as swiftly as all of these have from unexpected circumstances.
