"We are learning to listen to each other. This is a change from the previous administration."

[scheming daemons]

Spoken by Dmitri Medvedev during a Q&A with students at the University of Pittsburgh (sidenote: my alma mater. Woot!)

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"The mindset is important. Today, when I'm communicating with the U.S. president, I get the feeling that he's attentively listening. He doesn't preach to you as a mentor, which is not very nice. When you are preaching to others, it's not nice. People like him not only here in the United States but in other countries as well. So he's managed to do certain things that others have failed to do. I believe if personal relations between the leaders are good, then it will be easier to build better relations for the future.

For example, a recent decision by the President of the United States regarding forgoing the third site on ABM missile defense. Of course, this decision was determined by Barack Obama's mindset. It was not pro-Russia nor pro-Chinese nor pro-Europe, this was an American decision. What's important is Barack Obama listened to my position. Perhaps it was part of the basis for his decision. We are learning to listen to each other. This is a change from the previous administration. I think these are bold, courageous decisions, to change decisions of previous administrations concerning foreign policy. This was a complex decision. I tried to put myself in his shoes. It would not have been easy for me. It deserves our respect. We don't know what will happen next, but if we are continually attentive to each other, our relations will have a good future."

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/09/25/2080138.aspx?ocid=twitter


Wow. *THAT* is the type of change in our relations with other world leaders that we can all believe in.

[el_bryanto]

1. Well George W. Bush didn't really need to listen to anybody; he already had all the answers

or so he and his followers believed.

Bryant

[wroberts189]

6. For all his faults I have to thank him for not blowing up the world.

Despite Cheney's wanting to.

[get the red out]

2. Dear God we're becoming a real country again

Instead of some Imperial bully with delusions of world domination.

Fancy that!

[wroberts189]

5. While it is a bit slow going for some..Fancy that ..indeed yes.

[wroberts189]

3. Best Pesident Ever nt

[Happyhippychick]

7. +1

[LWolf]

4. "We" is exclusive.

Like others before him, Obama listens to who he wants to listen to.

He doesn't listen to the left wing of his own party, or to the left wing of the nation, for example.

He sure as hell doesn't listen to teachers.

[avaistheone1]

8. Afraid so. Progressive view points don't appear to be on Obama's radar.

Progressives not only do not have a seat in this administration, progressives do not have Obama's ear.

[scheming daemons]

10. Holy shit, you are myopic

Would Health Care Reform...specifically a Public Option... be IN THE DISCUSSION AT ALL if Obama turned a deaf ear to Progressives?

Would Nuclear non-proliferation be such a high priority for Obama if he didn't listen to Progressives?

Would Holder even BEGIN to allow an investigation into torture if Obama ignored Progressives?



I swear... some of you folks are WILLFULLY ignoring the evidence around you. Because your world view depends on having the "man" (being whoever is President at the time) as your enemy... you are WILLFULLY sticking your fingers in your ears and closing your eyes to the plain evidence around you.


You're intellectually stunted, and incapable of rational thinking.

[get the red out]

13. Excellent post!

:toast: I haven't seen it stated better. Thank you.

[LWolf]

12. That needs clarification.

"Progressive" is an ambiguous term.

For some it means "more politically acceptable term than liberal."

For others it means "extremely liberal."

For others, it means the corporatist/centrist/3rd way/"new" democrats that Obama has self-identified with. Remember that the think tank of the dlc is the "progressive policy institute."

I use "left," or "leftist," to avoid that confusion. Even "left," though, needs clarification.

When I use "left," I'm referring to the left from a global perspective. Using internal U.S. politics to determine where the "left" is skews the placement too far in the wrong direction, because the U.S. as a whole is right of center. Globally speaking.

Which makes the outrage from the extreme right in this nation so sublimely ridiculous; Obama is friendlier to their positions than he is to the left. Yet they're screaming "socialism!!!" :eyes:

[scheming daemons]

9. Bullshit

"He doesn't listen to the left wing of his own party"


If you haven't seen evidence of Obama "listening" to you during these 9 months, then you've been actively trying to avoid it.

Whether it is civil rights, foreign policy, the economy, health care, you name it... this President has taken positions farther to the left of any President in a couple generations.



And.... "listening" does not necessarily mean "agreeing with". Obama has gone out of his way to listen to other viewpoints. The fact that he's not always 100% in agreement with you doesn't mean he didn't hear you and appreciate your point of view.

[LWolf]

11. Please.

Single-payer health care? Not on the table.

End of the War on Terror? No, we're escalating the war in Afghanistan. We're still in Iraq.

Bailouts for workersfor banks and corporations rather than for workers.

Of course "listening" doesn't mean "agreeing with." Anyone who was paying attention never expected Obama to "agree" with the left.

"Listening," though, indicates something other than "distancing." Which he has been doing since he decided to run for president.