been he s been concerned about growing protectionism and withdrawal from the world. that concerns him. the sort of maximalism that some members of congress bring to our deliberations, where they want 100% of their way and there s never any compromise contemplated, i think those things bother him, but on the whole, i think he goes through these batches and i m hopeful that we ll work our way back out of it. he s hopeful that the institutions of democracy are strong? he thinks they are. episodically, they get a little creek creaky. there s a lot of gridlock in congress. he s spoken to that directly. he thinks in a country of 125 million opinuaionated people, there s no other way to govern. mark salter, i appreciate