State of the Union with Candy Crowley June 20, 2010

CNN ^ | June 20, 2010 | Candy Crowley

[ReleaseTheHounds]

From the Transcript:

CROWLEY: Wrapping up Afghanistan here, Hamid Karzai, do you think he has the ability and do you trust him to do his part in this?

FEINSTEIN: I think he remains a cipher. I think it's very hard to tell. Up close and personal, when you meet him, he is rather charming. Reports are that he is not a strong presence, that he does not have a kind of command control, that his administration is fraught with corruption and problems. So the report card is not a good one so far. That's a problem for us.

CROWLEY: How does the U.S. work with a man they don't trust or they don't believe has the ability to do what we need him to do?

LUGAR: Well, I think we have to say, it seems to me, as United States leaders, that he is the leader of Afghanistan and we're not going to involve ourselves in editorial comment daily about it, because that's the way that it is. This is not a perfect world, and he's not a perfect man, but we aren't either. And I think the problem is that we really have to pragmatically put our mouths there for the moment, and say we have got a leader and let's work with him.

[ReleaseTheHounds]

I heard this discussion yesterday on the radio and I was struck by the following: these Senators and Candy Crowley (CNN) are discussing the poor leadership of Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, yet everything they say could equally apply to our current president and his Administration. And I might add: "how does the world work with a President they cannot trust, especially one who is a cipher, has no leadership skills nor experience, and has a corrupt administration?" Just wondering...

[tet68]

And I think the problem is that we really have to pragmatically put our mouths there for the moment,

So Diane, you never sucked one but it’s ok if
you held one in your mouth? Pragmatically speaking...

[Nosterrex]

I thought that he was talking about Obama.