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Of that. we have a lot to talk about. let's bring in white house press secretary josh earnest. >> it's great to be here. what does president obama want out of this meeting with president putin? >> this is an opportunity for the two leaders to sit down. they haven't actually sat down in person in quite some time. it is an opportunity for president obama to reiterate how important it is that russia not interfere with the 62-member anti-isil coalition that the united states has been leading for more than a year now. >> aren't they already doing that? this surprise announcement that they are now...

>> reporter: what do you think of president obama? what's your evaluation of him? >> translator: i don't think i'm entitled to give any views regarding the president. that's up to the american people. >> reporter: do you think his activities in foreign affairs reflect a weakness? >> translator: i don't think so at all. >> and the white house, however, is pointing out russia's leadership weaknesses. >> russia for years has treated syria as essentially a client state. the action we're seeing from the russians now is responding from weakness. they're concerned about the investment there, they're ...

For years syria has been a client state of russia and that es why russia has had a military presence inside syria for some time they've work for a long time to prop up al assad. they want to make sure they can protect the investment they have inside of syria. this additional deployment of military resources is not them responding from a position of strength but from a position of weakness, concerned about the investment they've made inside of syria. what we want to do is we want to make sure that russia has the opportunity to make a constructive contribution to the international coalition that...

>> well said. 59% of the americans approve of the decision to normalize relations with cuba. david axelrod, senior adviser to president obama and david corn, washington bureau chief for mother jones magazine, both are msnbc political analysts. david, you're the expert on the legacy question, but in terms of the environment, a big issue with the president, marriage equality, clearly health care issues, all kinds of issues, climate this is a big one in terms of reaching out and trying to bring the world closer together. how do you see it? >> well, i see it as the president moving america into th...

Change its policies. it also was a time when cuba was a client state of the soviet union, an outpost 90 miles from the american shore, so there was some justification for the policies we've had. we've tried for 53 years to change their policies by shunning them. now he's chosen engagement. and as you pointed out, most americans agree that's the way to go. >> couple ways to look at this. from the left where you come from, the progressive side of things, it seems to me that this is approaching a communist government. do you see it's a way to bring them down? some of the writers, on the right say...