In National Review James Rosen, former Fox News correspondent, knocks Ben Rhodes’ book “The World As It Is,” with the kindest of introductions:
Rhodes’s recollection is smart and funny, poignant and biting, anxious and depressed: the richest firsthand account of Obama the man yet in print, an early landmark in the historical literature of his presidency.
The rest of the review is the conservative case against Obama’s foreign policy: too kind to Iran, too evasive on Benghazi, too eager to see the world as it isn’t.
Its all a little too easy. Rosen doesn’t really grapple with the Obama arguments. For all the criticism of the Iran deal, in the end even Trump’s Defense Secretary James (Don’t Call him Mad Dog) Mattis concluded the United States was better off with the deal than without. Would that be so hard to admit?
In Benghazi affair, Rosen claims the Obama White House ignored Ambassador Chris Stevens’ plea for better security, failing to note that Stevens preferred a lighter security detail because he felt too many armed guards hindered his ability to get to know the country. Nor does he acknowledge that Stevens’ family repudiated the Republican campaign to exploit his death for political purposes. That’s not the last word on the subject but it ought be mentioned.
Source: ‘The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House’ Book Review | National Review
