Tonight just after Keith Olbermann opens his show, MSNBC’s Countdown, at about 8:05 pm, I will be chatting with him about President Barack Obama’s nuclear summitry.
I’m in the “impressed” column with what Obama and his team have been lining up. And what is even better is that when Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice staffed the President when he chaired a historic convening of leaders at the UN Security Council in September 2009, she outlined what the administration was going to do — get a lockdown of nuke material process underway, get America back into a leadership position promoting the nuclear non-proliferation regime, and create not just costs for those who were outside the NPT but opportunities for those that are in.
The UN Security Council then voted unanimously in favor of the Obama global nuclear controls blueprint — and now it’s happening.
One of the primary causes of the perception other nations have of American weakness has been the seeming inability to achieve the objectives that President Obama himself has committed the nation to.
This has changed.
With the US-Russia START agreement, a new Nuclear Posture Review that makes several key leaps and which reduces the overall footprint of nukes in America’s military arsenal, the Nuclear Summit now underway (and paralyzing traffic patterns) in Washington — all leading up to the once every five years NPT Review Conference next month, Obama is changing the game and accomplishing real results.
I think that this momentum with big stakeholders like Russia, China, Brazil, Europe and so on — and efforts that Vice President Joe Biden is solidifying with a whole set of non-alligned nations are going to pay off substantially for the country and Obama’s legacy.
So, tonight. 8:05 pm Eastern. MSNBC’s Countdown.
And tomorrow, check out the lead oped on Politico. If all goes well, you’ll see a piece by yours truly on the Obama/Biden team’s new nuclear grooves.
— Steve Clemons
3 comments on “Counting it Down with Keith Olbermann Tonight on Obama’s Nuclear Summitry”