Former President visited Houston Tuesday night. He spoke at Rice University鈥檚 at an event marking the think tank鈥檚 25th anniversary.
Joining Obama on stage was former Secretary of State . Much of the event focused on the importance of bipartisanship and how that had broken down in the years between Baker going to Washington and when Obama took office. The two agreed the changing media landscape played a big part.
鈥淚n 1981, your news cycle was still governed by the stories that were going to be filed by the AP, Washington Post, maybe New York Times, and the three broadcast stations,鈥� Obama said. "Whether people got their news from Walter Cronkite or David Brinkley, they tended to agree on a common set of facts. That set a baseline around which both parties had to adapt and respond to."
鈥淏y the time I take office,鈥� Obama said, 鈥渨hat you increasingly have is a media environment in which, if you are a Fox News viewer, you have an entirely different reality than if you are a New York Times&苍产蝉辫;谤别补诲别谤.鈥�
Obama noted other causes for that division, then he pointed to the costs. He said one of the biggest revelations to him when he took office was the degree to which the U.S. underwrites international order.
鈥淚f there鈥檚 a problem around the world, people do not call Moscow,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey do not call Beijing. They call Washington. Even our adversaries expect us to solve problems and expect us to keep things running.鈥�
And here he took a swipe at the current administration. Without naming President Trump, Obama talked about the costs of 鈥渄ysfunction鈥� in Washington, making it difficult to make decisions, and the undermining of career civil servants particularly in the State Department.
鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 just weaken our influence. It provides opportunities for disorder to start ramping up all around the world and ultimately makes us less safe and makes us less prosperous,鈥� Obama said.
That led the evening鈥檚 moderator, historian , to pivot the discussion to how U.S. foreign policy has shifted under the current administration. Secretary Baker blasted Trump鈥檚 attacks on the alliances and institutions that helped the U.S. win the Cold War.
鈥淭his president is right in one respect for sure,鈥� Baker said. 鈥淣ATO needs to, our European allies need to pay their way, what they鈥檝e agreed to pay, and we shouldn鈥檛 be required forever to pick up the tab on that. But these institutions make America stronger, and we ought not to be running them down.鈥� Those included not only military alliances but also economic institutions.
Obama echoed the point. But he noted that supporters of that global model, himself included, became 鈥渁 little too comfortable.鈥�
鈥淲e did not adapt quickly enough to the fact that there were people being left behind,鈥� he said.
Others had, and the results started playing out during Obama鈥檚 tenure, shaping the outcome of the 2016 election, and driving policy ever since. 鈥淵ou start getting politics that based on, 鈥楾hat person鈥檚 not like me, and it must be their fault.鈥� And you start getting a politics based on a nationalism that鈥檚 not pride in country but hatred for somebody on the other side of the border,鈥� he said.
Toward the end of the evening, Obama reflected on his time in the Oval Office, saying he and his predecessors shared a reverence for the office independent of themselves. He declined to mention his successor.
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