Obama Says Afghanistan is Complex

I like the way Obama engages the media, or at least the ones he thinks are reasonable enough to listen. It would make no sense to engage Fox, although Obama did do a pretty good job with Bill O'Reilly.
Here Obama gives the NYT a story aboard Air Force One on the way back from Ohio:

In a 35-minute conversation with The New York Times aboard Air Force One on Friday, Mr. Obama reviewed the challenges to his young administration. The president said he could not assure Americans the economy would begin growing again this year. But he pledged that he would “get all the pillars in place for recovery this year” and urged Americans not to “stuff money in their mattresses.”

“I don’t think that people should be fearful about our future,” he said. “I don’t think that people should suddenly mistrust all of our financial institutions.”

As he pressed forward with ambitious plans at home to rewrite the tax code, expand health care coverage and curb climate change, Mr. Obama dismissed criticism from conservatives that he was driving the country toward socialism. After the interview, which took place as the president was flying home from Ohio, he called reporters from the Oval Office to assert that his actions have been “entirely consistent with free-market principles” and to point out that large-scale government intervention in the markets and expansion of social welfare programs began under President George W. Bush.

Obama says we're not winning in Afghanistan. I'm of the belief that war can't be won but I guess "winning" is just part of American culture.

The president spoke at length about the struggle with terrorism in Afghanistan and elsewhere, staking out positions that at times seemed more comparable to those of his predecessor than many of Mr. Obama’s more liberal supporters would like. He did not rule out the option of snatching terrorism suspects out of hostile countries.

Asked if the United States was winning in Afghanistan, a war he effectively adopted as his own last month by ordering an additional 17,000 troops sent there, Mr. Obama replied flatly, “No.”

I recommend you read the whole story because it covers a lot of ground.
Here again the White House engaged David Brooks, a moderate republican, making an effort to point out where they think he was wrong in a recent column. Brooks wrote about it here.