Charlie Rose

Jon S.  02/29/2008 02:25 PM Report

An intriguing interview. The comments below by "Kovil" are true and not true. He picked up on two pivotal quotes by Kishore Mahbubani: "India is an open society with a closed mind, while China is a closed society with an open mind." "The United States has a remarkable combination of insecurity and arrogance." But Kovil also insulted you, Mr. Rose, which shows a bit of arrogance and perhaps insecurity on his part. You are an exceptionally good interviewer, Charlie, right up there with Terry Gross (in fact I think she would be a great guest for your show). Many years ago I would have agreed with Kovil that you cut your guests off prematurely, mid-thought. But I rarely find that to be the case anymore, and I do watch you on a regular basis. You land extremely intriguing guests in the first place, and your choice of questions is right on target 94 percent of the time. Thanks so much for your substantial contribution.

kovil  02/29/2008 12:50 PM Report

Mr. Mahbubani is exceedingly well spoken. I can't say the same for Mr. Rose with all his mental word logjams and need to shout-down the guest, who is supposed to be there to be heard and listened to. (You better pay attention to your critics Charlie)

"India is an open society with a closed mind, and China is a closed society with an open mind, and America is an insecure society with a severe arrogance problem."

Wish Mr. Mahbubani had time and space to give us more brillant comments and insights. Guess Charlie is suffering from the Wm F. Buckley mindset of insecurity and arrogance.

Vinod Agarwal  02/29/2008 11:45 AM Report

Mr. Mahbubani clearly has the ability to analyze the complex situations in depth and comprehensively. To me, the most important point he made was that the rules were made and enforced by only a select group of countries. Clearly, the rules have been favoring them for centuries and the evaluation and enforcement is also in their hands. The question of fairness of rules notwithstanding implementation arises first before the question is asked of India and China as to whether they are playing by the rules. One can cite many examples of areas in which the same rules are quite pliable for those who formulated them. New framework and new consensus rules are needed to reflect evolving and new world configuration. Surely, biases will take time to adjust but important element is to see it coming.Prosperity and wars are not cohorts.

lena  02/29/2008 04:17 AM Report

Mr. Mahbubani is very incisive and convincing (as well as realistic given the changes/conflicts the "new world" is facing) and delivers his message in an even-handed manner. We are simply living in a new world and this must be acknowledged and delved with.

tony Nicholson  02/29/2008 02:12 AM Report

On the Mahbubani interview unfortunately Charlie was not at his best.

Perhaps it was a combination of an American patriot not wishing to face some unpleasant facts, and not being prepared both for the subject matter but also for a brilliant guest.

noel brady  02/29/2008 01:27 AM Report

Charlie was very bad in cutting Kishore Mahbubani off in mid sentence in order to read from the cover of the book a lot less interesting than hearing the guest.

RE Mant  02/29/2008 12:08 AM Report

Asian countries, if they have indeed risen that far, which seems to me to be quite a stretch at this point, have manifestly not done so by "discovering free trade."