Best presidential interview ever

I had planned to write today about the Arab response to the speech, and about an interesting meeting I had yesterday morning, but I wasn’t able to post due to technical problems with the site. Oh well. For now, I just have to share what has to be the best start of a presidential interview ...

I had planned to write today about the Arab response to the speech, and about an interesting meeting I had yesterday morning, but I wasn't able to post due to technical problems with the site. Oh well. For now, I just have to share what has to be the best start of a presidential interview ever

"THE PRESIDENT: I think you pressed play instead of record."

Ouch.  

I had planned to write today about the Arab response to the speech, and about an interesting meeting I had yesterday morning, but I wasn’t able to post due to technical problems with the site. Oh well. For now, I just have to share what has to be the best start of a presidential interview ever

"THE PRESIDENT: I think you pressed play instead of record."

Ouch.  

The unforced error by the unnamed interviewer comes at the beginning of Obama’s very interesting meeting with a small group of Arab journalists in Cairo. Unfortunately, Fahmy Howeydi — who is indisputably one of the two or three most influential Arab pundits, and one of the closest to the popular mood — reportedly withdrew from the meeting after discovering that an Israeli journalist would be present. That’s a shame not only because it’s a petty response in light of the speech which Obama had just given, but also because Obama would have greatly benefitted from hearing Howeydi’s views directly.    

Marc Lynch is associate professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, where he is the director of the Institute for Middle East Studies and of the Project on Middle East Political Science. He is also a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. He is the author of The Arab Uprising (March 2012, PublicAffairs).

He publishes frequently on the politics of the Middle East, with a particular focus on the Arab media and information technology, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, and Islamist movements. Twitter: @abuaardvark

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