Journalist Roberts Talks Syria in Mccarthy Lecture at St. John's

Journalist Roberts talks Syria in McCarthy lecture at St. John's

Roberts is a political commentator for ABC News and analyst for National Public Radio

Written by

Mark Sommerhauser

Cokie Roberts spoke Wednesday at St. John's University. / Jason Wachter,

COLLEGEVILLE — Like John F. Kennedy in the Cuban missile crisis, President Barack Obama may be “stumbling toward success” in defusing the threat of chemical weapons in Syria, journalist Cokie Roberts said Wednesday.

Roberts was the speaker at Wednesday’s seventh annual Eugene J. McCarthy Lecture at the College of St. Benedict & St. John’s University.

A political commentator for ABC News and analyst for National Public Radio, Roberts also spoke about the challenge of recruiting more women to run for Congress and her admiration for the work of Catholic nuns.

Roberts said the success of U.S. foreign policy in Syria is possible but not yet certain after U.S. and Russian diplomats agreed on a plan for Syrian leaders to surrender their chemical weapons. U.S. officials say the Syrian government used chemical weapons to kill more than 1,400 people in that nation’s ongoing civil unrest.

Responding to an audience member’s question about whether progress on the Syria issue was “carefully engineered” by the Obama administration, Roberts said the administration’s handling of the matter has been far less deliberate than that.

She cited Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban missile crisis as a potential comparison for the Obama administration’s handling of Syria, should the situation be resolved as U.S. officials hope.

But that’s not yet assured, she added.

“The administration is being very clear on that: Don’t think this is a done deal. It is not a done deal,” Roberts said.

Roberts said recruiting a larger number of appealing female candidates, not voter bias against female candidates, is the chief obstacle to bringing more women to the halls of Congress. She said the cooperation among the current crop of female U.S. senators shows how more women in that body might make it work better.

“The only bastion of bipartisanship in the Senate is the women,” Roberts said.

Roberts also made clear her fondness for the work — and in some cases, the defiance — of Catholic nuns. She said her late mother, former U.S. Rep. Lindy Boggs of Louisiana, believed nuns were “the original feminists.”

Nuns have played a vital role in expanding educational access in the United States, including for the poor, women and people of color, Roberts said. She said nuns often mounted that push while dodging obstacles put forth by unsympathetic priests and other members of the Church hierarchy.

The McCarthy Lecture celebrates one of the most accomplished alumni of St. John’s University. McCarthy was a former U.S. senator and presidential candidate. The lecture is sponsored by the university’s McCarthy Center for Public Policy and Civic Engagement.