The comments were made by Barnett during a C-SPAN taped lecture he gave on one of his books.

What happened to the nuanced thinking that the anti-Bush people were so desperate to have? This guy makes equivocations all over the place. He is a classic Putin apologist, basically says the invasion of Georgia was the same thing as Bush’s war with Iraq. Really? I don’t recall the presidents of those countries having the same historical record.

He starts by trying to say that Vladimir Putin is not so bad because he was just like the American president Andrew Jackson. Hello, wake up Mr. Barnett, this is the year 2009, not 1830, I think standards of behavior have changed, slavery is now illegal. What do you expect from a man who ignores all of the human rights abuses in China:

Thomas P.M. Barnett: Putin is Andrew Jackson, basically.

Barnett also said that Barack Obama is the smartest president we have had in one hundred years. That’s a good one, I guess when you have a teleprompter as your best friend, how can one think any different?