Tom Friedman on Obama's Asia Trip, and Where The Real Tea Partiers Are

Because crazies reside on both sides of the political spectrum, Imus welcomed “left-wing whack job” Tom Friedman to the show today, and allowed the New York Times Op-Ed Columnist to present his horribly misguided view of the world for ten minutes or so.
 
The designated foreign affairs writer, Friedman has been writing frequently about this country because, he said, “I think America’s strength and vitality—or lack of it—is really the biggest foreign policy issue in the world. If we go weak, your kids don’t just live in a different America. They’ll live in a different world.”
 
Whiffs of this possibility have been evident during President Obama’s trip to Asia, where yesterday he attended the G20 economic summit in South Korea and was treated with little respect.
 
“It’s a harsh place out there,” Friedman said. “And so the Koreans argue a little harder for their fair trade deal…and China’s President Hu Jintao stares Obama down, and says, ‘I’ll increase the value of my currency when I darn well feel like it.’”
 
With China owning so much of this country’s debt, Imus wondered what happens if they stop wanting to lend us money, or demand repayment on their loans. “We and China kind of have what we and the Soviet Union had during the Cold War: mutual assured destruction,” Friedman explained. “Which, in the case of us and China, is mutual assured economic destruction.”
 
Pulling the plug on the U.S would therefore dramatically affect their own economy and impoverish the customers (Americans) China most needs to buy its products. “We can’t roll over without hurting them, they can’t roll over without hurting us,” Friedman said.
 
The results of last week’s midterm elections have proven to Friedman what he already believed to be true: there is a Tea Party in this country, but it ain’t the folks making all that noise.
 
not the real Tea Party?“I call that the Tea Kettle Party, because they’ve really been more letting off steam,” he said, showing Imus why he’s won three Pulitzer Prizes. “But they don’t have what seemed to me like a clear, coherent, strategic plan for reviving, renewing and refreshing this country.”
 
The real Tea Party, in his view, consists of a large swath of unrepresented people in the political middle of the country. “It stretches from the left wing of the Republican Party, right through the Independents, to the right wing of the Democratic Party,” Friedman said. “I call it the radical center, and I think that radical center really is still looking for leadership.”
 
Imus approved wholeheartedly of this theory, which also posits that besides worrying about losing their job, their home, or their car, people are also, for the first time, worrying about their country. And while Obama purports to be worrying about it too, he’s also concerned with Israel, whose behavior he criticized this week from Indonesia.
 
Friedman, for one, thought the whole episode was overblown, and sided with Obama that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should stop “bobbing and weaving,” and agree to work on a secure peace with Palestinian President Mahmous Abbas, who Friedman described as “the most decent…and the most effective leader” of his people.
 
“Palestinians are demanding a freeze on settlements—not an unrealistic demand,” Friedman said. As Netanyahu dithers, Obama has tried to entice him with promises of U.S. security and military assistance. “I don’t blame Obama for being frustrated,” Friedman added.
 
But Friedman, too, is frustrated, particularly with American politicians who aim only to defeat the President, whether it’s Obama or someone else, and do nothing to advance this country’s agenda.
 
“My Chinese friends always say to me, ‘Friedman, you really exaggerate us, you exaggerate our strength,’” he said. “I say, ‘You know what? You bet I do. Because you’re my sputnik. You’re that thing I want my country to see rising, so we get off our behinds and do the things we need to do.’”
 
People in China call him “Friedman?”
 
-Julie Kanfer