July 8, 2011

Quote of the Day: There is No Obama Doctrine

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From Fareed Zakaria, praising the speed of Barack Obama’s reaction to events in the Middle East:

It took Ronald Reagan two years to turn on Ferdinand Marcos. It took Obama two weeks to urge Hosni Mubarak to resign.

The rest of the piece is a welcome call to stop looking endlessly for an “Obama Doctrine.” It doesn’t exist. Obama’s temperament is generally multilateral and realist, and his responses to specific events tend to be both pragmatic and considered — and contrary to the carping of his critics, they also tend to be both resolute and relatively speedy. But that’s about it. Like it or not, he’s just not a doctrinal kind of guy.

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