White House On Damage Control After Aide's Magazine Profile

[Purveyor]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House on Monday worked to contain the damage caused by one of President Barack Obama's closest aides, who, in a seemingly candid, behind-the-curtain magazine story, ripped the Washington press corps, boasted of creating an "echo chamber" of supporters to sell the Iran nuclear deal and appeared to dismiss long-time foreign policy hands, including Hillary Clinton, as the Blob.

Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes' comments to The New York Times Magazine have sparked a mix of bewilderment and outrage in Washington's political and policy circles. While some marveled at a savvy White House aide's apparent eagerness to discuss what some consider the ugly sausage making of modern governing, other noted he'd kicked up a hornet's nest of a debate over whether the White House oversold the legacy-burnishing deal to curb Iran's nuclear program.

The article revived criticism of the agreement. In a statement issued Monday, Sen. John McCain, a long-time critic of the Iran pact, said the piece "provided a troubling glimpse of the White House spin machine that has put sustaining 'the narrative' above advancing the national interest."

The piece portrays Rhodes, Obama's top foreign policy speechwriter and arguably one of his most influential aides, as singularly in tune with his boss's thinking and narrowly focused on crafting a messaging machine to support it. It quotes Rhodes lamenting the ignorance of Washington reporters. ("They literally know nothing.&quot And it describes Rhodes, a former aspiring novelist, as focused on crafting a storyline and dismissing facts that don't fit.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_AIDE_INTERVIEW_BACKFIRE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-05-09-18-02-13

[zeemike]

1. It's not like he is telling us something we don't know.

And they have been doing it for decades.
But the boy who says the emperor is naked is not well liked in the halls of power.

[LiberalArkie]

2. It quotes Rhodes lamenting the ignorance of Washington reporters. ("They literally know nothing.")

And he is getting bashed for stating the obvious.

[JonLeibowitz]

10. Recommend reading Goldberg's rebuttal; Glorious!

[Fast Walker 52]

19. Goldberg who?

[JonLeibowitz]

20. ...

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/ben-rhodes-and-the-retailing-of-the-iran-deal/481893/

[karynnj]

21. Thanks, this is a great article and he is clearly furious

The best part is that he defines many of the writers and foreign policy people whose work I read on both Israel and on Iran. The biggest question I have is what was Rhodes thinking when he gave Samuels that kind of access?

It also seems that Samuels distorted a lot of what he heard to fit his own view of the world. I have no idea how Rhodes fixes this. This article actually adds almost nothing about the story behind actually getting the multinational nuclear deal. It confuses the White House selling the deal to Congress with the many years of negotiations. Even the interim deal involved a lot of diplomacy involving Zarif, Kerry, Lavrov, Fabius, Hague, and the German and Chinese foreign ministers.

To believe that the interim deal was already done in 2012 would have meant that these diplomats met for long days for months - even missing deadlines. Then it ignores that the interim deal was a fraction of the scope of the framework and the final deal. In fact, there was a quantum leap between the interim deal to the final deal. It ignores that Moniz, a nuclear physicist was intimately a part of the team that designed many technical details. In fact, people were surprised when teh frame work was announced at how well it was designed.

In fact, it is the very anti Iran writer who had the agenda of essentially claiming that the Obama administration tricked them. As to using the beltway writers, Samuels ignored that in fact, much of the neo con foreign policy media was actively against any deal and were calling John Kerry delusional that anything could succeed - even as late as a few weeks before the deal was approved. Having followed it, the media did not just follow the Obama story.

[AngryAmish]

23. Goldberg being mad does not mean he is not a mark.

And when marks find out they have been had tend to insist that they were not fooled. It is human nature.

[karynnj]

25. I have no doubt that every politician tries to use the media

However, that article has major problems in speaking of the Iran deal, which was used as the example.

Note that it stats from the critics position, ignoring it was a multinational effort that many countries assigned many people to work on for years.

This is an attempt to discredit and delegitimize the Iran deal, Obama's top foreign policy accomplishment. I do not question that Rhodes said what he did, but I think they were taken out of context.

I assume he was speaking oh how they worked to GET CONGRESS ON BOARD, working against AIPAC and the neocons. The idea that the interim deal was made in 2012 is not true. What is true is that is when secret negotiations that when known made Netanyahu explode were started. What was established is that there was potential to get a deal.

I read Goldberg, Rouzen and others while following the process because Kerry was involved. Though most people on DU were uninterested there were some of us who followed it. The media was VERY skeptical about the negotiations for the entire time. They obviously were not just listening to Obama ( and Rhodes was not yet selling it) when Kerry was called everything from obsessed to delusional even in the month before they got the deal.

But go ahead, follow your own willingness to believe, and ignore that this is written by a neo con angered by Obama managing to get this deal done.

[bemildred]

26. Rhodes is the mark here.

Compare Obama picking Goldberg, someone who he often disagrees with, to report on and present his "Obama Doctrine", and gets what he wanted; with Rhodes who interviews Samuels and gets screwed by this sophmoric hit piece.

You have to know who you are dealing with when you give interviews, and he ought to know better.

[bemildred]

24. Thank you. nt

[rpannier]

13. Thank You

That is the whole truth
The Washington press corpse are morons, lazy and ignorant
Come on: Chuck Todd, David Gregory, Howie Kurtz (the literal definition of stupid and worthless), Luke Russert, and on and on. How much less talent can you have?

[philosslayer]

3. a lot of hoopla over nothing

Will be a non story by the weekend.

[Doctor_J]

4. Uh oh. Someone poked a hole in the right wing Washington bubble.

For shame

[CountAllVotes]

8. .

#FeelTheBern Sanders 2016!!

[karynnj]

27. Actually the author of the article that started this is a neocon

[840high]

5. They do try to keep us in

the dark. Go Rhodes!

[libodem]

7. Yep

We must be mushrooms.

They keep us in the dark and feed us bullshit.

[LiberalArkie]

15. I want to be a psilocybin mushroom

[dorkzilla]

16. *snort*

Of course you do!

[libodem]

17. Of courrrse!!!

Sees all and knows all.

[riderinthestorm]

6. Creating an "echo chamber" of support sounds a lot like "catapult the propaganda"nt

[AlbertCat]

11. long-time foreign policy hands,

4 years is considered "long-time foreign policy hands"?

[Algernon Moncrieff]

12. Welcome to year eight

People leave the administration, and say what they really think to sell books and self-promote.

[rpannier]

14. Ain't that the truth

Now, it's all about A.P. (After President).
How much influence can they peddle and how much money can they make

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. Especially since he's an aspiring novelist n/t

[bemildred]

22. +1. nt

[former9thward]

29. He hasn't left the administration.

And the White House set up the interview.

[Dustlawyer]

28. Here begins the ramp up to a war with Iran!

The MIC wants this! They will get Israel to start it and we will have to come in and protect them. This is how it starts.

[Bradical79]

30. Too soon, dummy

Maybe you should wait until after Obama's out of office to start bragging about how you manipulated everyone? You still have a job to do.