BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Saying the right thing is not quite the same, to be sure, as doing the right thing, especially when you're the president of the United States. But it is much better than saying the wrong thing and then actually going on to do the wrong thing. We don't have to go back very far in U.S. history for a striking example of this potently negative one-two-punch.
But to what extent do words always prefigure action? That's the big question with this current president. So far, he hasn't done much, so he hasn't messed up yet. Still, the new president is saying many right things these days, and saying them well.
He certainly got off to a great start in foreign relations by not only saying the right thing but articulating it in unprecedented venues. Imagine, for starters, the utter astonishment of the producers of al-Arabiya in Dubai when the White House called them with the proposal that they conduct the first-ever full TV interview with President Barack Hussein Obama.