New Year Brings New Congress, Foreign Policy Challenges

Read the Full Transcript

• RAY SUAREZ:

  To the analysis of Dionne and Ponnuru, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne and National Review senior editor Ramesh Ponnuru. Mark Shields and David Brooks are both off tonight.

  And President-elect Obama, Ramesh, is stuck with his one-president-at-a-time saying, but is it turning out to be less true on the economy than it is on foreign affairs? He's coming to Washington over the weekend to begin consulting with Congress on a big economic package.

• RAMESH PONNURU, National Review Senior Editor:

  I think you do find that President-elect Obama is honoring that one-president-at-a-time idea more in foreign policy than he is on economic policy.

  And I think, among other things, that probably reflects his own passions and interests and his political needs at the moment. He can't afford not to be taking an interest in the economy.

• RAY SUAREZ:

  And, E.J., reflecting the needs of the situation, as well?

• E.J. DIONNE, Columnist, Washington Post:

  Well, actually, I think he's better off talking about the economy than he is on foreign policy because getting the economy moving again requires confidence in the future. And who is about the future? It's Barack Obama who takes office on January 20th.

  So he can begin the process of reassuring people in the country that the economy will get moving again and have some material effect, whereas his speaking out, for example, about what's going on in Gaza now would almost certainly just undercut whatever President Bush says.

  And he doesn't know what that situation is going to look like when he takes office on January 20th. So I think one set of issues is in his interests, in our interests for him to talk about, and the other isn't.