I hear you. It is grating to hear him trying so hard to give players from both parties due credit, especially the part where he attributed calls for NATO partners to pay their bills to past presidents, when this one is the first one to have gotten it out there and on the way to being done. But it is possibly part of his personal discipline so that he can remain useful and continue his career no matter which party is in power. I get the feeling that he keeps his personal opinions to himself and tries to express publicly only an objective view of how history may judge events and players.
That is kind of how I am viewing it as well, AW. I think he is a good man and a principled man.