Ex-White House Official Podesta Calls Karzai 'Erratic' --- STEVE INSKEEP, People advising President Obama's administration on Afghanistan include John Podesta. Years ago, he was President Clinton's chief of staff. These days, he's chair of the Center for American Progress and part of an effort to offer independent views on Afghanistan to the administration. Last week, he was in that country just before the many delegates to that assembly of elders approved the U.S. presence in the country, after which President Karzai put off signing the deal, anyway. -- JOHN PODESTA: Karzai has really gone from maddeningly unpredictable to dangerously erratic.-- INSKEEP: William Dalrymple, who wrote a history of Afghanistan, and ended up interviewing President Karzai for something like eight hours this year, was on the program the other day. And he painted a rather sympathetic portrait of this man and said all he's really trying to do is demonstrate his independence from the United States. -- PODESTA: Well, I think he has a hell of a way of showing it. One of the things on my recent trip that really struck me was that the psychology in Afghanistan has really changed. People really are focused on the election. They're focused on succession. They're focused on new leadership. - More, NPR, at: http://www.npr.org/2013/11/26/247297842/ex-white-house-official-podesta-calls-karzai-erratic