NYT: Backstory On Obama's Nuclear Treaty Negotiations With Russia....

[BlooInBloo]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/world/europe/27start.html?pagewanted=1&sq=obama&st=cse&scp=4

President Obama was angry. He was on the phone with President Dmitri A. Medvedev last month to finalize a new arms control treaty with Russia, only to be confronted with new demands for concessions on missile defense. A deal that was supposed to be done was unraveling.

“Dmitri, we agreed,” Mr. Obama told Mr. Medvedev with a tone of exasperation, according to advisers. “We can’t do this. If it means we’re going to walk away from this treaty and not get it done, so be it. But we’re not going to go down this path.”

Mr. Obama hung up and vented frustration. Some of his advisers had never seen him so mad. A picture taken by a White House photographer captured his grim face in that moment of uncertainty. For a year he had been trying to forge a new relationship with Russia, starting with a treaty to slash nuclear arsenals. And for a year Russia had been testing him, suspecting he was weak and certain it could roll over him.

If Mr. Obama overestimated his powers of persuasion in reaching quick agreement with the Russians, they misjudged how far they could get him to bend. In the end, they compromised on nonbinding language. And so, after all the fits and starts, all the miscalculations, the vodka toasts that proved premature and the stare-downs that nearly sank the whole enterprise, Mr. Obama hung up the phone again with Mr. Medvedev on Friday, this time having finally translated aspiration into agreement.

Much more at the link. Cool stuff.

[defendandprotect]

1. Good news . . . back to read it later --

[maseman]

2. You can't blame the Russians

They, like manyleaders, needed to see what he was made of. That's what leaders of big countires do. But he proved backbone, resolve, patience, intelligence, and persuasion.

I love IT!

[Phx_Dem]

3. Netanyahu is making the same mistake, thinking Obama is weak

and can be intimidated. Think again Bibbi.

[Windy]

5. He is learning. And he is learning the hard way that he should listen to his buddy Dick

as in Cheney

[karynnj]

9. I hope not - on most things!

[Windy]

4. Just fantastic! This is why I voted for him. The MSM on the Tee Vee

won't discuss this though at least not to this depth.... too bad. That is the only way most people get their news.

[impik]

6. Very cool stuff. People still think he's weak, ah?

Idiots.

[BlooInBloo]

7. I especially the loved the thinking-on-his-feet part in coming up with solutions to disagreements.

[karynnj]

8. Very interesting how personally involved President Obama was on this

though I guess this was an area he worked on in the Senate, when he and Lugar sponsored the updated version of Nunn/Lugar.