David Gregory was in rare form today when he was joined by Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken to discuss Putin's invasion into the Ukraine. He seems to think, like most neocons, that America should be able to dictate what the entire world will be doing at any given time and if there is a deviation from their worldview, then it's because of Obama, or something. It's like neocon brains can't compute the idea that a foreign leader will not do act according to their plans.
DAVID GREGORY: Let me talk about the crisis in Ukraine. Since this started, the president and his top officials have issued it seems like line after line, and Putin seems to have crossed them all. Why does this president, and the United States generally, have so little influence over him?
DAVID GREGORY: I just want to go back and challenge you on this point because my question is we've said, "Don't do this or else," and President Putin keeps doing it, and more. So why doesn't the president have a greater ability to influence what Putin does before he does it?
DAVID GREGORY: He's not listening, and I think people watching this want to know why it is that the administration can't exert greater pressure on him to stop him before he does something.
Tony Blinken calmly explained that the US is doing everything they can short of dropping a nuke on Russia.
TONY BLINKEN: The president's made clear, and so have leaders from around the world, including in Europe where we're closely coordinated, that Russia has a choice going forward. It can continue down the path its on and face much greater isolation and much greater cost, or it can take the opportunity to resolve this diplomatically in a way that addresses its concerns but restores Ukraine's sovereignty.
TONY BLINKEN: The cost is already significant, first of all. Second, the president's made clear that going forward, in coordination with our partners and allies, we have in place a mechanism, with sanctions, to raise the cost significantly. But this is really a choice for the Russians to make. They have to decide whether they want to resolve this diplomatically or whether they want to face growing isolation, growing economic cost.
Who can really influence Putin on anything? He saw an opportunity and took it since his puppet in the Ukraine was ousted by the Ukraine people. But in any event, Gregory's whiny ass questions is indicative of the mindset within the Beltway Village. Almost every show today had a segment or a chyron framing the issue as how weak is Obama on foreign policy since Putin didn't heel once Obama called him on the phone.
