Quotes by Jon Alterman

“My guess is that the U.S. will say we are doing what we can. The Saudis will say please do more and there will be an agreement to work together to do a little bit more.”

“No one really won in this constitution. It left almost everything vague. Everyone played to a tie but we dont know how the ties are going to be resolved.”

“The roadmap is inoperative and nothing has replaced it.”

“He (Abbas) didnt come away with a whole lot and hes looking at elections in January and he cant be too pleased,”

“Its a lot of excellent, well-meaning people who have an impossible job to do, ... Theres no way they can make both sides happy when theyre done with their investigation and filing their report.”

“There is going to be regional involvement if an Iraqi civil war breaks out. ... The downsides of this could be absolutely catastrophic.”

“The process will take a long time,”

“Its a 12-step program. The first step is to admit you have a problem. They still have 11 steps to go.”

“There was a sense the president was on another planet. What the president has done in the last week or so is be much more frank about challenges without diluting his optimism. ... It puts him back in the debate.”

“People were overly optimistic. And now people are overly pessimistic.”