he s trying to maintain relations with china. mr. obama and shinzo abe held a press conference. he caused something of a stir when he said washington supports tokyo in a thorny territorial dispute with china. that focuses on islands held by japan but claimed by china. let s get down to it with michelle kosinski. this isn t a change in politics but it s where and when the president decided to affirm the security plan with japan. explain. reporter: the goal is to expand trade ties with the four nations that are being visited, but inevitably some of these touchy subjects were going to come up because the president takes questions from the press. of course someone was going to ask him about it. it surprised many of the
our chief national correspondent, john king, and candy crowley. the state of the union chief here. what does this say, jessica, about the president of the united states? he wanted to stick with a team, a foreign policy team he s had a lot of his view, success with. this is a vote for loyalty, familiarity, and stability. both of these people have been in the national security meetings that he s been holding over the last four years so there isn t a change here. they know the policy and they are people who have been here before he was at the white house. these are people he trusts. never has so much change been nade to kind of get nowhere. io have the secretary of defense, a new secretary of sta state, a new head of the national security council and a new u.n. ambassador and no one expects anything to change because they re all people who are either not going to be in the inner circle and therefore he s not listening to tha much or they have already been in the inner circle.
this a little bit further and just wonder about all of the rhetoric and about the moderating of his comments on these reproductive health issues since the primaries. do if he were just moderating his position, if he were saying, listen, there are republicans who tried to let the people in my own party who tried to let a boss decide whether or not his or her employees were going to have access to contraception under insurance. i understand why people believe that. i don t. i ve changed my position on that. i have seen the light. that would be moderating his position. in this case he is not moderating his position. when the campaign was asked directly about this if this reflects a change they insist that this isn t a change. they re just not describing the position accurately. and i don t actually know what the political corrective is for that. well, we do our fact checks after, you know, after these debates and we pore through the documents. we don t have all that much
just wonder about all of the rhetoric and about the moderating of his comments on these reproductive health issues since the primaries. do if he were just moderating his position, if he were saying, listen, there are republicans who tried to let the people in my own party who tried to let a boss decide whether or not his or her employees were going to have access to contraception under insurance. i understand why people believe that. i don t. i ve changed my position on that. i have seen the light. that would be moderating his position. in this case he is not moderating his position. when the campaign was asked directly about this if this reflects a change they insist that this isn t a change. they re just not describing the position accurately. and i don t actually know what the political corrective is for that. well, we do our fact checks after, you know, after these debates and we pore through the documents. we don t have all that much time. especially after the last debate
as a shield behind which you brutalize your own people, but that now also puts responsibility on those of us outside the country to intervene, to act. but intervention does not necessarily mean use of force. it can be political, diplomatic, economic, fiscal sanctions. and use of force as a last resort. and if we are going to use force, we have to be certain or have a clear idea that it would improve the situation and not make it worse. do you feel like the united states turn with the election of barack obama toward a more respectfully multilateralist approach to international affairs is a substantive change, and has it had any unintended consequences? i think it is a substantive change which was appreciated by the world. the rest of the world understands that you have a powerful u.s. which was ready to work with other countries, which