'New Yorker' Editor: Obama Responsible for Lack of Anti-Americanism in Arab Spring Uprisings

By all accounts, President Obama has been far more hawkish than anyone anywhere in the world could have possibly imagined.

Despite this, "New Yorker" magazine editor David Remnick told the crew at MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Friday that the current Administration is responsible for the lack of anti-American displays in Arab Spring uprisings (video follows with transcript and commentary):

DAVID REMNICK, EDITOR ‘NEW YORKER’: It is encouraging though to see in these movements throughout the Middle East that anti-Americanism is not a rallying flag.

TOM BROKAW: Right.

REMNICK: Despite all our missteps and a lot worse in the last ten years, whether it was going to Iraq, or Abu Ghraib, or, or, or all these kinds of violations, anti-Americanism was not a banner in Cairo, in Tripoli. It’s in fact just the opposite.

JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST: That’s one of the really, one of the stunning developments you did not see Israelis flags and American flags being burned to whip the crowd into a frenzy.

REMNICK: I think quite frankly the difference in administrations is partly responsible for that. The tone and tenor of the difference between the Bush administration and the Obama administration is at least in part responsible for that.

You mean like killing Osama bin Laden and violating Muslim burial tradition? Or sending additional troops into Afghanistan? Or bombing Libya without provocation? Or sending drones to kill people in Pakistan? Or keeping Guantanamo Bay open? Or continuing CIA renditions?

You mean that difference in “tone and tenor,” David?

This President could send a nuclear bomb to Iran and folks like Remnick would still champion Hope and Change.