Obama a fan of 'the great Urdu poets'

The fact that President Obama had good Pakistani friends at Columbia in college was one that was basically kept out of his campaign on the theory that anything with any connection to Islam would feed a viral rumor the campaign was trying to kill.

Now, though, it's another useful diplomatic tool, as in his interview with Dawn this weekend:

‘Any plan to visit Pakistan in the near future?’ ‘I would love to visit. As you know, I had Pakistani roommates in college who were very close friends of mine. I went to visit them when I was still in college; was in Karachi and went to Hyderabad. Their mothers taught me to cook,’ said Mr Obama. ‘What can you cook?’ ‘Oh, keema … daal … You name it, I can cook it. And so I have a great affinity for Pakistani culture and the great Urdu poets.’ ‘You read Urdu poetry?’ ‘Absolutely. So my hope is that I’m going to have an opportunity at some point to visit Pakistan,’ said Mr Obama.