Free Republic

Richard Haass is the quintessential member of the foreign policy establishment. Long-time President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Haass has served in Republican and Democrat administrations and advised candidates from both parties. In this election, he has been very critical of Donald Trump. So no taint of partisanship can be applied to the normally mild-mannered Haass’ scathing comments on today’s Morning Joe about President Obama’s UN speech of yesterday. After calling the speech a “major disappointment,” Haass unleashed the unkindest cut, saying of Obama’s detached attitude to the crises of the day “this is not the faculty lounge.” Ouch....

It's hard to be a sunny optimist when considering the situation at Iraq. Things are tough, no doubt. That said, was Today, the show whose NBC News parent famously declared "civil war" earlier this week, giving us a fair-and-balanced view of matters this morning when the only expert we heard from expressed the most unalloyed pessimism on Iraqi prospects?Meredith Vieira interviewed Richard Haas, President of the Council on Foreign Relations and former principal adviser to then Secretary of State Colin Powell. At the end of their conversation, Vieira summed up Haas's views this way: "You do not believe that there...