Steven Durel: President Obama was just re-elected with a majority of the vote. How do you feel about his first term in office?

Noam Chomsky: I frankly never expected much. I never liked him much in the first place and did not succumb to the beliefs about the great changes that would take place. In fact, I wrote about him before the 2008 primaries, critically, just using his web site. So I can’t say I was much surprised, except by some things I was.

I hadn’t anticipated his attacks on civil liberties, which went way beyond what I would have expected. I don’t really understand them. I don’t think they did him any good politically or otherwise.

I didn’t anticipate the expansion of the global assassination campaign, or the methods of it.