(3 of 4)
When I'm working with my foreign policy team, there's just not a lot of extraneous noise. There's not a lot of posturing and positioning and "How's this going to play on cable news?" and "Can we score some points here?" That whole political circus that has come to dominate so much of Washington applies less to the foreign policy arena, which is why I could forge such an effective working relationship and friendship with Bob Gates, who comes out of that tradition, even though I'm sure he would've considered himself a pretty conservative, hawkish Republican. At least that was where he was coming out of. I never asked him what his current party affiliation was, because it didn't matter. I just knew he was going to give me good advice.
But have you been able to forge similar relationships with foreign leaders? Because one of the criticisms people make about your style of diplomacy is that it's very cool, it's aloof, that you don't pal around with these guys.
I wasn't in other Administrations, so I didn't see the interactions between U.S. Presidents and various world leaders. But the friendships and the bonds of trust that I've been able to forge with a whole range of leaders is precisely, or is a big part of, what has allowed us to execute effective diplomacy. I think that if you ask them, Angela Merkel or Prime Minister Singh or President Lee or Prime Minister Erdogan or David Cameron would say, We have a lot of trust and confidence in the President. We believe what he says. We believe that he'll follow through on his commitments ... That's part of the reason we've been able to forge these close working relationships and gotten a whole bunch of stuff done.
You just can't do it with John Boehner.
You know, the truth is, actually, when it comes to Congress, the issue is not personal relationships. My suspicion is that this whole critique has to do with the fact that I don't go to a lot of Washington parties. And as a consequence, the Washington press corps maybe just doesn't feel like I'm in the mix enough with them, and they figure, well, if I'm not spending time with them, I must be cold and aloof. The fact is, I've got a 13-year-old and 10-year-old daughter, and so, no, Michelle and I don't do the social scene, because as busy as we are, we have a limited amount of time, and we want to be good parents at a time that's vitally important for our kids. In terms of Congress, the reason we're not getting enough done right now is you've got a Congress that is deeply ideological and sees a political advantage in not getting stuff done. John Boehner and I get along fine. We had a great time playing golf together. That's not the issue. The problem was that no matter how much golf we played or no matter how much we yukked it up, he had trouble getting his caucus to go along with doing the responsible thing on a whole bunch of issues over the past year.
You talked a lot about how foreign policy ultimately has to derive from American strength, and so when I talk to businessmen, a lot of them are dismayed that you have not signaled to the world and to markets that the U.S. will get its fiscal house in order by embracing your deficit commission, the Simpson-Bowles. And that walking away from that, which is a phrase I've heard a lot, has been a very bad signal to the world. Why won't you embrace Simpson-Bowles?