intends to be remembered. and how he intends to either keep fighting or bringing americans home from the fighting after 12 long years over the course of this second presidential term. joining us now is andrea mitchell. she is nbc s chief foreign affairs correspondent. andrea, thanks for being here. i appreciate you taking the time. thank you. happy new year. i haven t seen you since the new year. thank you. why was john brennan too hot a political potato in 2009, but he is not too hot now? you know, i ve been thinking than question. and certainly the president had to be much more careful coming into office about his base and about his campaign promises. and i think once you inhabit that seat at the head of the table in the situation room, and you are responsible for fighting terrorism, and you take on that commander in chief mantle, your perspective changes. and clearly it did for barack obama. we see that. i think the two sides of his brain are really his foreign policy brain
at the democratic national convention in charlotte, north carolina, last year, the convention at which president obama officially accepted the nomination of his party for a second term, the guy who stole the show kind of, the guy who had the audience in rapt attention for the better part of an hour was, yes, barack obama, well received speech, yes. but the other than that guy, the guy who did that who wasn t barack obama was bill clinton. people ask me all the time how we got four surplus budgets in a row. what new ideas did we bring to washington? i always give a one-word answer. arithmetic. [ applause ] arithmetic. we simply cannot afford to give the reins of government to someone who will double down on
officially nominated chuck hagel to be secretary of defense as of today. interestingly, another potential nominee for a big high profile national security job for this white house who president obama reportedly initially wanted, but who also backed off from was this guy, john brennan. this was john brennan with president obama when president obama first took office. john brennan was reportedly president obama s choice to lead the cia after he first became president in his first term. john brennan had been a career cia figure. he had served as chief of staff to george tenet when george tenet under george bush developed their torture and secret prison program. john brennan s association with the torture and secret prison program of the george bush era of the cia is what sunk his chances for being picked as director of the cia at the start of the obama presidency. it s kind of weird. it s almost a foreign concept in american modern politics that the left might block something
keep fighting or bringing americans home from the fighting after 12 long years over the course of this second presidential term. joining us now is andrea mitchell. she is nbc s chief foreign affairs correspondent. andrea, thanks for being here. i appreciate you taking the time. thank you. happy new year. i haven t seen you since the new year. thank you. why was john brennan too hot a political potato in 2009, but he is not too hot now? you know, i ve been thinking than question. and certainly the president had to be much more careful coming into office about his base and about his campaign promises. and i think once you inhabit that seat at the head of the table in the situation room, and you are responsible for fighting terrorism, and you take on that commander in chief mantle, your perspective changes. and clearly it did for barack obama. we see that. i think the two sides of his brain are really his foreign policy brain are really being
keep fighting or bringing americans home from the fighting after 12 long years over the course of this second presidential term. joining us now is andrea mitchell. she is nbc s chief foreign affairs correspondent. andrea, thanks for being here. i appreciate you taking the time. thank you. happy new year. i haven t seen you since the new year. thank you. why was john brennan too hot a political potato in 2009, but he is not too hot now? you know, i ve been thinking than question. and certainly the president had to be much more careful coming into office about his base and about his campaign promises. and i think once you inhabit that seat at the head of the table in the situation room, and you are responsible for fighting terrorism, and you take on that commander in chief mantle, your perspective changes. and clearly it did for barack obama. we see that.