Noted plagiarist Fareed Zakaria was once rumored to be in the running for a top diplomatic post in the Obama administration. Nothing ever panned out, but that hasn’t stopped Zakaria and his team of writers from being reliable champions of the president’s foreign policy.
Earlier this month, an individual writing under the Fareed Zakaria byline called on Western leaders to exclude Russia from the G-8 in response to its actions in Crimea: "Russia’s membership in the G-8 should be suspended. Remember, the G-8 was created to recognize that post-Soviet Russia was behaving like an honorable member of the international community, not a rogue state."
Some politicians, such as Senator John McCain (R., Ariz.), have argued for years that Russia’s G-8 membership should be reassessed; McCain suggested this back in a 2008 while running for president. But Zakaria didn’t think this was such a great idea back then, calling it "the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years."
In an interview with Playboy that same year, an individual claiming to be Zakaria praised the "progress" in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. "Russia isn’t just richer," the person said, "it’s freer in a hundred different ways."
In that same interview, "Fareed Zakaria" dismissed speculation that he was in the running for secretary of state. "I can't be on a team; it's the nature of my profession. I have to be independent. I piss people off on all sides. Part of my job is not to be partisan. I call things as I see them, which disqualifies me for politics."
"Zakaria" said this after accusing Republicans of having "lost their essential mooring and morphed into a party whose heart seems focused entirely on religion, hypernationalism and a kind of xenophobia…So I would support Clinton, but I am hoping Barack Obama wins…I think he's right about every issue he's been criticized on."
It is unclear whether or not Zakaria actually wrote or said any of this, which might explain the bizarre inconsistencies.