President Obama chose the Arabic-language news channel Al Arabiya for his first interview as President today.   THAT speaks volumes even before we go to the transcript.

Some gems from the interview:

“…their [radical Islamic leaders] ideas are bankrupt. There’s no actions that they’ve taken that say a child in the Muslim world is getting a better education because of them, or has better health care because of them.”

“What I told [George Mitchell - US envoy to the Middle East] is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating — in the past on some of these issues –and we don’t always know all the factors that are involved. So let’s listen.”

“I want to communicate is the fact that in all my travels throughout the Muslim world, what I’ve come to understand is that regardless of your faith — and America is a country of Muslims, Jews, Christians, non-believers — regardless of your faith, people all have certain common hopes and common dreams.”

MR. GIBBS:  “… we’re past, and I got to get him back to dinner with his wife.”

[Full Transcript]

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.