Exclusive interview: Bruce Herschensohn, Obama’s Globe

posted at 11:31 am on August 18, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

When I was offered an opportunity to interview Pepperdine senior fellow and author Bruce Herschensohn, once the Republican nominee for US Senate against Barbara Boxer in 1992, I leaped at the chance.  Herschensohn had been a fixture on Los Angeles television for 14 years, engaging in spirited but respectful debates with former Senator John Tunney on KABC on the entire range of political issues.  In a very real sense, I got a good deal of my political education from those installments, which began in my teen years.

As you’ll soon discover for yourself, Bruce Herschensohn is still as sharp, incisive, and delightful as ever.  His new book, Obama’s Globe: A President’s Abandonment of US Allies Around the World, examines Barack Obama’s record on what Herschensohn thinks should be the real focus of any presidential election: foreign policy.  It’s been very telling that the Obama campaign has barely mentioned it, but certainly understandable.  We discuss a number of fumbled hot spots in our 35-minute conversation, including Egypt, where both Herschensohn and I think Obama may have done the worst job of all.  We revisit Obama’s weird alliance with the Castro brothers and Hugo Chavez on Honduras, the betrayal of Poland and the Czech Republic on missile defense, the mystery of our abandonment of the UK on the Falkland Islands, and of course the incompetence of Obama’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

All of this is in his book, of course, so be sure to pick up Obama’s Globe at the bookstore or from the Amazon link.  Herschensohn picked the release date deliberately in order to make foreign policy a larger topic in the upcoming election.  And by the way, Herschensohn tells me during the first part of the interview that Senator Tunney is doing well, and that the two of them remain close friends.  He’s still teaching lessons in politics after all these years, and I hope you enjoy this one.

Maybe we’ll circle back and speak more with Bruce Herschenson closer to the election.

Update: I wrote “Chavez brothers” instead of Castro brothers, the result of a re-edit and a failure to double-check it. I’ve fixed it.

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Comment pages: 1 2

Been to many TEA party rallies, have you? Or are you merely engaging in rectal speak?

As usual…

JohnGalt23 on May 24, 2013 at 1:46 PM

As I just posted HotairLib has their whole head up their six o clock.

hamradio on May 24, 2013 at 2:43 PM

Who wrote the speech? Or are you just praising the messenger?

mixplix on May 24, 2013 at 2:57 PM

MSNBC consensus: Obama’s speech was historic, amazing, “one of the best of his presidency”

Connect the dots: journolist meeting by invitation only at the White House on, what Tuesday?, “big”speech by Obama on Thursday, lame stream media fawning over speech on Friday. Who would have seen that coming, huh?

parke on May 24, 2013 at 2:58 PM

They need the “war on terror” in order to further erode our Constitutional freedoms and to deflect criticism from the administration’s and Federal government’s ongoing corruption.

They are just trying to massage it so that they don’t offend the Muslims, international Libtards and their own sensibilities anymore than necessary.

A few Muslim terrorists here and there are quite expendable to this Administration despite their sympathies for them. These drone attacks also do much deflect any potential criticism that the Administration is weak in dealing with such matters.

Dr. ZhivBlago on May 24, 2013 at 2:59 PM

MSNBC is nothing but a left wing propaganda machine serving their master, Obama.

rplat on May 24, 2013 at 3:07 PM

Nobel Peace Prize that he totally earned a mere nine months into his presidency? Yeah, that one.

I believe that he was officially nominated 10 days after he was sworn in. Wow! The WON really worked long hours that week and a half to earn that POS medal. During those ten days he ordered NO DRONE STRIKES to keep his peaceful record clean.

fred5678 on May 24, 2013 at 3:22 PM

Obama: Don’t worry about that Ben Ghazi guy. I killed Bin Laden, and Bush didn’t!

And Obummer still wants to close Gitmo? Good luck with that–not even Upchuck Schumer was willing to hold trials in New York!

Steve Z on May 24, 2013 at 3:24 PM

They need the “war on terror” in order to further erode our Constitutional freedoms and to deflect criticism from the administration’s and Federal government’s ongoing corruption.

They just changed the definition of terrorist. They used to be jihadis from the Middle East–now they’re Minutemen in Arizona and Tea Partiers in Ohio.

Steve Z on May 24, 2013 at 3:29 PM

…bromides about what we’re told are President Foreign Policy’s miraculous yet still oddly unmaterialized abilities to move us drastically closer to world peace.

Erika, sometimes your writing shows signs of rivaling even the Master of Snark himself, Allahpundit. Good work!

KS Rex on May 24, 2013 at 3:45 PM

I love how crazy Al invoked the Nobel Peace Prize in praise of a speech that spoke about dropping bombs on people’s head. Maybe it was the “fewer” bombs than before that raised this to historic levels.

Do they even know or care that they are morons.

marnes on May 24, 2013 at 3:46 PM

His speech made less sense than Bluto’s Animal House Speech and was far less entertaining. Nothing less than base rallying time. Never thought I would say this, but Code Pink was the best part.

DDay on May 24, 2013 at 4:01 PM

Sperling posted this at the Examiner on May 23 about this “historic speech of Obysmal’s:

During his foreign policy speech Thursday afternoon, President Obama warned that domestic terrorism would increase in the modern age of the Internet.

“[T]his threat is not new,” Obama said. “But technology and the Internet increase its frequency and lethality.”

Obama warned Americans that materials on the Internet could influence people to commit terrorist acts.

“Today, a person can consume hateful propaganda, commit themselves to a violent agenda and learn how to kill without leaving their home,” he said.

To combat domestic terrorism, Obama reminded Americans that it was important to reach out to Muslim communities.

“The best way to prevent violent extremism is to work with the Muslim American community — which has consistently rejected terrorism — to identify signs of radicalization and partner with law enforcement when an individual is drifting towards violence,” he said. “And these partnerships can only work when we recognize that Muslims are a fundamental part of the American family.”

You see, we are just not working hard enough to “work with the Muslim American community” who are a “fundamental part of the American family.” Watch out, too, because Obysmal is again trying to limit the impact of the Internet.

onlineanalyst on May 24, 2013 at 4:22 PM

That Chris Hayes is a bit of a twink, isn’t he?

onlineanalyst on May 24, 2013 at 4:25 PM

Obama apparently gave two speeches yesterday and I watched the other one.

myiq2xu on May 24, 2013 at 5:03 PM

Comment pages: 1 2