MSNBC’s Chris Matthews was deeply impressed with President Obama’s address Monday before the United Nations, and the cable news host went so far as to compare the commander in chief to the late Nelson Mandela.
“What I saw there was the post-presidential Obama, the man he wants to become, when he moves to New York,” Matthews gushed. “He is going to be a post-presidential Nelson Mandela.”
The president pleaded with the U.N. to work to avoid armed conflict, and he also warned Iran that being violently anti-American is bad for creating jobs.
“The Iranian people have a proud history, and are filled with extraordinary potential,” he said. “But chanting ‘Death to America’ does not create jobs, or make Iran more secure. If Iran chose a different path, that would be good for the security of the region, good for the Iranian people, and good for the world.”
Elsewhere, Obama seemingly hinted that the United States would be open to working with geopolitical foes to defeat end the Syrian civil war and crush the rise of the Islamic State.
“The United States is prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict,” he said. “But we must recognize that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the pre-war status quo.”
“[R]ealism dictates that compromise will be required to end the fighting and ultimately stamp out ISIL,” he added. “We know that ISIL, which emerged out of the chaos of Iraq and Syria, depends on perpetual war to survive. But we also know that they gain adherents because of a poisonous ideology. So part of our job, together, is to work to reject such extremism that infects too many of our young people. Part of that effort must be a continued rejection by Muslims of those who distort Islam to preach intolerance and promote violence, and it must also a rejection by non-Muslims of the ignorance that equates Islam with terror.”
For Matthews, these and other comments elevate Obama to a level typically reserved for world leaders like Mandela.
“He is going to be a man of the world selling democracy, claiming credit for climate change initiatives, with opening to Cuba, with trade deals. He is laying down all the values he is going to be spending the rest of his life, I believe, promoting,” he said.
“Today we saw it as an away game,” Matthews added. “It will soon be a home game for him. He will become a presidential leader who will become a global figure.”
