MSNBC’s Alex Wagner: Obama ‘Thinks And Thinks Deeply’ On Terror War, Why The Left Voted For Him

While dissecting President Barack Obama’s speech on Thursday defining some of the parameters of the war on terror as it transitions from an offensive to a defensive phase, MSNBC host Alex Wagner praised the president’s approach to the issue even if it was not satisfying for some on the left. She said that Obama “thinks and thinks deeply” about issues like counterterrorism, which is partially why Americans voted for him.

John Podesta, President Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff, praised Obama on Friday for detailing the “tensions that exist” regarding how America defines its national security strategy.

RELATED: Scarborough Baffled By Contradictory Obama: Created ‘Explosion’ In Drone Strikes But Now ‘Pulling Back’?

“I know that a lot of people sort of were not satisfied, especially folks on the left about you know in terms of answers and limits,” Wagner said of Obama’s speech. “But I actually thought this is why a lot of people on the left elected President Obama, because he is someone who thinks and thinks deeply about these issues and does not come to answers easily.”

Former White

House advisor David Axelrod agreed, and stressed that Obama has been and remains deeply conflicted about how to conduct the global war on terror.

“This has been a constant tug and pull,” Axelrod noted. “He really laid out yesterday the struggle that goes on in his head all the time.”

Watch the clip below via MSNBC:

> >Follow Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) on Twitter