But we already have ways to search an entire city of hotels for booking, much much faster even than this one conversation would be.

Even if going with agents, why in the world would it be over a voice line instead of data?

See also: Cogsworth

I think is more a generalization about the praise of “goals” rather than associating him with anyone in particular.

Ultimately all the major powers are being graded on a curve and are generally only “good” when compared to some more evil major player. The US may be slipping to be worse than China, but China would still be worse than a number of European nations.