One of Barack Obama's biggest media cheerleaders on Tuesday said that Vice President Joe Biden's idea concerning managing the war in Afghanistan was better than the President's.
"I thought that the minimalist strategy that, that Joe Biden was, was apparently propounding, the anti-terror strategy as opposed to what we're effectively doing which is basically nation-building, I thought that Biden had a better idea," Washington Post columnist and former assistant managing editor Eugene Robinson said on yesterday's "Morning Joe."
"The President had different, you know, went a different way, and this is something he's going to have to work through Karzai if it's possible to work this through," he continued.
"I'm not sure this is going to end well" (video follows with transcript and commentary, file photo):
JOE SCARBOROUGH: What is your take on the ramp up by this President, the generals, they keep, I mean the President follows what the generals' recommendation, to prop up our man in Afghanistan which is Karzai who is now suggesting he may switch sides?
EUGENE ROBINSON, WASHINGTON POST: Well, you, you recall, Joe, that, that when the President was contemplating the buildup, our ambassador there cabled the State Department saying, "Look, there's a problem here, and it's name is Hamid Karzai. He's not a reliable partner in, in this effort, and we really need to think about whether we're going to put so many poker chips on him." And, I think that's what you're seeing play out. I think he has different, he has a different agenda from the U.S. agenda in Afghanistan. I, I think he has a different idea about the kind of Afghanistan he would like to see at the end of all this. I, I think he's not necessarily the partner we want. Now, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, I guess sometimes you go to war with the partner you have not the one you would want. But, this question was asked beforehand, so you couldn't, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that this guy is really, really flakey, and unpredictable.
SCARBOROUGH: That's the point. You go to war with the allies that you have, but this President doubled down, in some instances tripled down, while he had his own Vice President saying, "Don't do it. This guy's a thug." So, this shouldn't be a shock to the President, should it?
ROBINSON: It should not be a shock. I mean, you know, I thought, and not that you know, the President is one to take my advice, but I thought that the minimalist strategy that, that Joe Biden was, was apparently propounding, the anti-terror strategy as opposed to what we're effectively doing which is basically nation-building, I thought that Biden had a better idea. The President had different, you know, went a different way, and this is something he's going to have to work through Karzai if it's possible to work this through. I'm not sure this is going to end well.
He said it, but he wasn't very comfortable saying it, was he?
It almost seemed like he knew he was speaking against the President he supports, and really didn't want to.
Readers are encouraged to read other NewsBusters pieces about Robinson to understand just how big an Obama supporter this man is, and just how surprising this statement was.
