ex-Congressman Lee Hamilton retiring from Think Tank

I listened to an interview done by NPR radio with Lee Hamilton who has worked in Government since the Kennedy administration for about 40 years now. He is retiring from a Washington think tank. So he was giving this NPR interview.

He was mentioning how Obama's Presidency is a work in progress and is still getting off the ground and how he worries about "whether the nation can endure" with the world the way it is now. He mentioned that there are more problems that the U.S. faces internally than externally because of the increasing complexity of the world during these times we presently live in.

When asked about Obama's campaigning style as opposed to his presidency, Hamilton said something like, "The Problems are very different when trying to deal with them in office than while campaigning. And that Obama faces some of the worst problems of any President in our history, similar to Lincoln.

For example, he spoke about how it took 40 years of meeting with the Soviet Union for the two nations to accomplish anything at all, but that it was important to keep trying otherwise there was no chance at all of ever making things work now with Iran unless we keep trying. It might take 40 years to make a useful relationship with Iran too.

And he said the  problems between Iran and the United States run very deep and very complex on both sides. And neither side is likely to change in any fundamental way soon.

Here is a quote from his interview:

"I think you come filled with ambition and drive and energy and wanting to accomplish great things, and you find the system is very hard  to move, to make it work," Hamilton tells NPR. "And I think what has impressed me over the years is the sheer complexity and difficulty of governing this country."
America's challenges "have become much more diverse and more difficult" since Hamilton was first elected to Congress in the mid-1960s. His concern for the future? "Whether this nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure," he said, quoting Abraham Lincoln.  "That was the operational question at Gettysburg; it's the operational question today.  I worry a lot more than most people, I think, about our ability internally to deal our problems than I do about external problems.  I really wonder whether this country, moving in the direction it can, can solve the problems it has in front of it and continue to be #1 in the world."

He added, "We have to make sure our resources match our ambitions."
end quote.
I have always noticed that Lee Hamilton always had something very intelligent and useful to say over the years, and always was trying to be a "voice of reason" while many others just got hysterical and stopped making sense. So I think we all should listen to  to his words of wisdom after 40 years of public service to our nation.
There are two sites I found below that have part or all of his interview. Parts are quoted in print in the first one or you can listen to the whole interview in the second one.

Lee Hamilton '52 Featured on NPR's Morning Edition

2. Lee Hamilton Shares Memories From His Public Life : NPR