Brooks: Obama’s Hiroshima Speech ‘Beautiful,’ Had ‘Characteristically Obama-esque Dose of Realism’

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks praised President Obama’s “beautiful” speech in Hiroshima, Japan, and its “characteristically Obama-esque dose of realism.”

Brooks said, “I thought it was a beautiful speech. It was realistic about human nature and our tendency to get into fights. And one of the nice little moments in there was when he tied the fighting of hunter-gatherers, the fighting of children on the playground to a nuclear explosion. It’s just the same sorts of territoriality, tribalism, but with bigger tools. And so, that was a nice tool and I think a characteristically Obama-esque dose of realism. I was glad he didn’t apologize. I think, on balance, the decision was the right one. He elliptically avoided that. He avoided mention of who actually started the war, which was diplomatic.”

Brooks added that he was “glad” Obama hadn’t done much about getting rid of nuclear weapons.

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