President Obama’s interview with the New York Times the other day covered a lot of ground, including four things that struck me:

1) The president offered some reassuring words on the economy, which needed to be said:

What I don’t think people should do is suddenly stuff money in their mattresses and pull back completely from spending. I don’t think that people should be fearful about our future. I don’t think that people should suddenly mistrust all of our financial institutions because the overwhelming majority of them actually have managed things reasonably well.

2) The president used the phrase “success in Iraq”:

If you talk to General Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Does the president think we’ve achieved success in Iraq (I think so), or does he think General Petraeus thinks we’ve achieved success in Iraq? Talk amongst yourselves.

3) Contrary to his Attorney General, President Obama does not think America is a nation of cowards:

I think it’s fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language. I think the point that he was making is that we’re oftentimes uncomfortable with talking about race until there’s some sort of racial flare-up or conflict, and that we could probably be more constructive in facing up to the painful legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination.

But what I would add to that is the fact that we’ve made enormous progress and we shouldn’t lose sight of that. And I’m not somebody who believes that constantly talking about race somehow solves racial tensions. I think what solves racial tensions is fixing the economy, putting people to work, making sure that people have heath care, ensuring that every kid is learning out here. I think if we do that, then we’ll probably have more fruitful conversations.

(I don’t think Eric Holder actually thinks Americans are cowards either. I think this just proves that the president is more careful with his words than Holder is.)

4) This just sickens me, but, from the president’s own mouth, “I rarely read blogs.”