things forward. let s take the issue of syria because there s a fundamental difference here. putin wants to support assad, doesn t think we should be actively trying to overthrow him. he wants to prop him up. and the united states says it s absolutely unacceptable for assad to remain in power. can you see any way to reconcile those two positions? i think we can reconcile because when the united states says it is unacceptable, it has been unacceptable for three years. so assad is still there. so it is acceptable then, so there must be some sort of condition for him not to stay as long as russia wants but stay for the time period to convince russia and the world and the middle east in general is that it s not going to go the libya way, it s not going into that whole disarray of the gadhafi way. so when barack obama says putin annexed crimea and shuns international law putin shoots back and says fine, we can actually support your strikes in iraq because iraq requested those air strike
let s take the issue of syria because there s a fundamental difference here. putin wants to support assad, doesn t think we should be actively trying to overthrow him. he wants to prop him up. and the united states says it s absolutely unacceptable for assad to remain in power. can you see any way to reconcile those two positions? i think we can reconcile because when the united states says it is unacceptable, it has been unacceptable for three years. so assad is still there. so it is acceptable then, so there must be some sort of condition for him not to stay as long as russia wants but stay for the time period to convince russia and the world and the middle east in general is that it s not going to go the libya way, it s not going into that whole disarray of the gadhafi way. so when barack obama says putin annexed crimea and shuns international law putin shoots back and says fine, we can support your strikes in iraq because iraq requested those air strikes but when you re strikin
and to pledge money to solve the world s biggest problems. president obama has made it a point of stopping by the clinton global initiative every single year around this time. and this is how bill clinton has fashioned his post-presidential persona, as a jetsetting do-gooder. it s also gone a good way toward making the clinton family a sort of a non-partisan american institution, a family that was seen for a few years there as above the fray of the political slugfest. it s a big part of why hillary clinton looked so formidable when she launched her presidential campaign. it s why she led her prospective democratic rivals including the sitting vice president by more than 50 points in the polls. it was a level of strength that we had never before seen from a non-incumbent president running for president. that s how things looked when this campaign started. but six months later, of course, it s now a very different story. for one thing this is the first year that president obama has
that aren t going to vote. it s just i know it s an obsession because it kind of frames the debate for people for that week. but i m in it for the long haul. whether or not bush is actually in it for the long haul, it s hard to accept his assertion that his campaign is making great progress. it s hard to accept that when you ve seen his support drop from 23%, just a few months ago, all the way down to just 7%. obviously, in terms of polling, it s the opposite of progress. and while bush might be acting as if there s nothing to see here, you get a sense that the campaign may be getting worried. his campaign has announced plans to reserve tv ad time in those key early primary states. and bush himself signaled today that he s got plenty of money in the bank to stay on the campaign trail leading up to next year s early primaries. but all the money in the world cannot buy enthusiasm. and that is something that he s starting to lose with his biggest supporters. the washington post re
president obama has made it a point of stopping by the clinton global initiative every single year around this time. and this is how bill clinton has fashioned his post-presidential persona, as a jetsetting do-gooder. it s also gone a good way toward making the clinton family a sort of a non-partisan american institution, a family that was seen for a few years there as above the fray of the political slugfest. it s a big part of why hillary clinton looked so formidable when she launched her presidential campaign. it s why she led her prospective democratic rivals including the signaturing vice president by more than 50 points in the polls. it was a level of strength that we had never before seen from a non-incumbent president running for president. that s how things looked when this campaign started. but six months later, of course, it s now a very different story. for one thing this is the first year that president obama has not made time for the clinton