#227: The White House Reality Show
“On the largest and smallest questions alike, the voice in which America speaks to the world is that of Ben Rhodes,” wrote the New York Times in a recent piece titled “The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru.” This is the man behind the president’s speeches, and he is largely responsible for shaping the nation’s foreign policy. Rhodes is perhaps one of Obama’s most trusted advisers—they share the same worldview. Surprisingly though, Rhodes has almost no experience in foreign policy. His master’s degree is in creative writing. And that is the skill he and the president use most—shaping policy that sounds appealing but is actually misleading and not grounded in reality. On today’s show, Stephen Flurry digs into the deceptive foreign policy of the Obama administration.