Steve Inskeep: That raises a word that I want to bring up that former Secretary of State Clinton used in a speech the other day. She was criticized for having empathy or understanding for even enemies around the world. There are, though, military people who use empathy for the enemy, by which they mean not sympathy but understanding the enemy so you can …

President Obama: Absolutely.

Steve Inskeep: … outwit them.

President Obama: Right.

(…)

President Obama: America‘s never been in the business of colonizing other countries and grabbing their resources; we‘ve never been in the business of bullying folks into doing things that we can‘t do for ourselves. Where we have done that, by the way, it‘s never worked out all that well. That‘s not our best tradition.

Our best tradition is when we just lead by example and when we are strong and secure and we‘re standing up for what we believe in.