Scarborough On Obama’s Foreign Policy: ‘Conservative With A Small C’

Leave it to MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough to eagerly defend President Obama following his speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

Appearing on Thursday’s Morning Joe, Scarborough insisted that on foreign policy Obama’s "been criticized from a lot of, you could say conservative circles, mainly neo-con circles for not doing enough and going into Syria a year or two ago. But he certainly has followed public opinion, hasn't he? In that respect, conservative with a small c?”

The MSNBC host made his comments during a segment with Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review and Todd Robberson of the Dallas Morning News. Scarborough began his defense of Obama by heaping praise on his U.N. speech:

We were talking last segment about what a big departure this was from his 2009 Cairo speech. This was a lot more muscular and some said more lecturing to the Middle East saying, hey, you guys have to clean up your act.

While the so-called conservative MSNBC host was quick to prop up Obama and bizarrely assert that he was “conservative with a small c” actual conservative columnist Ramesh Ponnuru threw some much needed cold water on Scarborough’s pro-Obama sentiments:

I guess in this case, it's a matter of leading from behind public opinion. The danger there is that you end up with sort of a half-hearted intervention. And where I would fault the president is I'm not sure that that moral clarity that he had in the speech is matched by a strategy that will achieve its goals because I keep hearing from experts whether they want us to do less or want us to do more, they're skeptical that this is going to work. 

As the discussion progressed, Scarborough told Ponnuru that “I’ve ranted and raved about it on this TV show, but you’ve written at length about the future of the conservative movement” and it seems that President Obama is the Morning Joe host’s number one choice to lead the conservative movement.

For his part, Ponnuru concluded the segment by actually recommending real conservatives to lead the Republican Party on foreign policy not the “conservative with a small c” that Scarborough called President Obama:

I think you have to say the Republican Party’s sort of all over the map on this one right now. And sometimes if you look at individual Republicans, it's hard to say. I would say that Senator Rubio is kind of the next generation version of the McCain/Graham wing of the party. You've got, of course, Rand Paul arguing for a much more limited American role in the world and then I think you've got the vast majority of Republicans somewhere in the middle between those two. 

See relevant transcript below.

MSNBC’s Morning Joe

September 25, 2014

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Alright, joining us now Senior Editor for National Review and Bloomberg View columnist Ramesh Ponnuru. Also, Pulitzer Prize winning editorial writer for the Dallas Morning News Todd Robberson. Todd, I'll start with you. You found the president's U.N. Speech powerful and pervasive. 

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Persuasive.

BRZEZINSKI: Persuasive.

TODD ROBBERSON: Pervasive.

BRZEZINSKI: And pervasive. 

ROBBERSON: The language of this speech really, I felt, departed from a lot of the kind of mundane normal speeches that you hear at the United Nations and the speeches that the president gives all over the country and all over the world. This time he used a kind of imagery and a choice of words that really spoke to people and I felt resonated. The heart of darkness calling ISIS evil or the extremists evil. The network of death and this cancer of extremism. That's pretty tough talk. 

SCARBOROUGH: Ramesh, we were talking last segment about what a big departure this was from his 2009 Cairo speech. This was a lot more muscular and some said more lecturing to the Middle East saying, hey, you guys have to clean up your act. What was your take away? 

RAMESH PONNURU: You know, I was pretty positive about the speech. I thought that there was a moral clarity about some of the challenges we face that's very necessary and it's a break not only from what Obama was saying in 2009, but, really, in some ways what he was saying as recently as a month ago. If you think back to that California fund-raiser in August, he says you know the world’s actually doing better than it looks on the nightly news and on social media. I think yesterday he provided a much more realistic look at the real challenges that the world’s order is facing right now.  

SCARBOROUGH: And in that respect Ramesh, I know he certainly has been criticized from a lot of, you could say conservative circles, mainly neo-con circles for not doing enough and going into Syria a year or two ago. But he certainly has followed public opinion, hasn't he? In that respect, conservative with a small C? 

PONNURU: Well, you know, I mean I guess in this case, it's a matter of leading from behind public opinion. The danger there is that you end up with sort of a half-hearted intervention. And where I would fault the president is I'm not sure that that moral clarity that he had in the speech is matched by a strategy that will achieve its goals because I keep hearing from experts whether they want us to do less or want us to do more, they're skeptical that this is going to work. 

SCARBOROUGH: And Todd, that is the challenge, is it not, for this White House? We heard criticism from the White House for years that there is no overarching strategy. And we’ve heard that from a lot of Democratic strategists, as well. That’s its all ad-hoc, all reactive it’s never proactive. Are we seeing a change here where the president is finally realizing that leading from behind, so to speak, is not a strategy for the United States of America moving forward? 

ROBBERSON: This really feels different to me. I think he's finally recognized that the world is crying for leadership. These are such uncertain times. You've got Ebola, you've got Russian aggression in the Ukraine. Just a general sense that things are falling apart and the world needs someone to step up and say, okay, now, here's what we're going to do. And there's no other person who can do that but the American president.

SCARBOROUGH: So, Ramesh, really briefly you have written at length, you know, I’ve ranted and raved about it on this TV show, but you’ve written at length about the future of the conservative movement. Who is filling that void right now because most conservatives don't want it filled by John McCain and Lindsey Graham, I'm not knocking those guys. I know them both, I like them both, but that is not the Republican view moving forward. Who lies at the center, at the heart of the conservative foreign policy? 

PONNURU: Yeah. You know, I think you have to say the Republican Party’s sort of all over the map on this one right now. And sometimes if you look at individual Republicans, it's hard to say. I would say that Senator Rubio is kind of the next generation version of the McCain/Graham wing of the party. You've got, of course, Rand Paul arguing for a much more limited American role in the world and then I think you've got the vast majority of Republicans somewhere in the middle between those two. But not really having a defined foreign policy vision of their own. 

SCARBOROUGH: No doubt about it. 

BRZEZINSKI: All right Ramesh Ponnuru and Todd Robberson thank you so much. 

SCARBOROUGH: Thank you guys.

BRZEZINSKI: Great to have you both on.

SCARBOROUGH: Great discussion.