there's a really fascinating piece uh... in the new yorker by orion eliza and
because they had a look at these all bomber memos that had never been before
seen we see the notes that the president made in the man
these are memos from you know cheerio people from larry summers from tim
geithner
from uh...
uh... from top advisers rahm emanuel and then
in the president's reaction to them
it's a twenty five the terms of serious peace twenty five pages in the new york
reminiscent decides some of it for you because it
it really suggests uh... much of what progress is think about obama
is true it has been true from the start
than these memos to me suggested gaya president who from the very first time
he who is a elected to the senate and really prior to that when he was in the
illinois senate
was a guy who thought here's what leaders do leaders work with the other
side
at all costs and he believed that he could get this done
and the endurance oval bomber the mistakes made in his presidency which i
think are undeniable
from a
warren feed lengthy
and most failure to recognize
what was happening around
a complete failure to recognize
that the republicans who he was reaching out to
never had any interest in helping him so uh...
uh... so early on the the peace begins fascinating lee he's about to be sworn
in as a cold january in two thousand eyes he waits for his january twentieth
inauguration
and he goes to george will's house
washington post columnist george will the conservative columnist he's gonna
meet with a bunch of right leaning journalist people who of course would
not uh... supported george will's there michael barone david brooks in the new
york times
charles krauthammer from fox william kristol lawrence kudlow rich lowry peggy
noonan very influential reaganites very serious uh... right wingers
and it's a charming little dinner and and some of them leave believing that
this guy might be able to be a little different bridge this gap i don't know
what these guys
we're thinking here early what we're thinking in any way
keep in mind this is a guy brocco bahu burst on the national scene when he made
his uh... speech at the democratic national convention in two thousand four
and when he ran for the senate era he criticized says here's the pundits and
prognosticators who like to divide this country into red states in blue states
that was the nature of his speech
where they're at the convention in boston he said there is not a liberal
america said a while and a conservative america there there is a united states
of america
and then he goes on to become a big star
nine two thousand six he writes his book the audacity of hope in there so many
great lines in this book
that make you recognize exactly uh... who brocco obama was and from where he
came where his thinking comes from
uh... here's how he did he describes politics is a system seized by two
extremes depending on your tastes
our condition
is the natural result of radical conservatism or perverse liberalism tom
delay or nancy pelosi big oil or greedy trial lawyers religious zealots are gay
activists
foxnews
or the new york times
so i think when you read that
you see a guy who comes act is spread off the bat
grotesque misunderstanding
uh... o of good
disparate
political elements of this country
just look at the court up there were more charges you can see the things that
he
splits
tom delay a nancy pelosi
complimented policy were not ideological opposites
nancy pelosi in uh... in infinity policy debate in congress in nineteen
sixty-eight you maybe you would describe her is very partisan
but in in this year uh... she wasn't she's not
nearly as partisan as tom delay and merely because they're known names
you don't think we can
and the fact that a guy like oracle baba equates them gives instant credence to
the argument that they are equal
and then when you talk about the big power bigelow agree trial lawyers again
using a line this whole thing is out of a frank luntz
playbook
of false
equivalents
big oil or trial lawyers at one by the way the closest
religious zealots are gay activists
oh gay activist people fighting for and for so i wouldn't use the term religious
zealots either cuz it minimizes people great faith but
religious zealots are gay activist get the most part extremists
i mean that's again that's like saying civil rights activist work stream is gay
activists are not extremist they're gay activist and then the worst one of all
fox news of the new york times
one of them is interested in giving you information to get you through the day
telling you what's going on the world in one of them is a political organization
designed advance the cause of the right way
the suggestion to me that's the kind of thing we would expect to read from that
organization in washington the third way with things that we all get along really
great these things aren't the same in a significant miscalculation by obama vs
two thousand six
to miscalculation that he would series continue to make
up until today
although i think some encouraging signs in the last few weeks
mysteries new yorker goes on in the back and forth between clinton and gingrich
he's talking about in the nineties window clueless president
and in the elections he says a two thousand two thousand four
sometimes felt as if i were watching the cycle drama of the baby boom generation
a tail rooted in old grudges and revenge plot hatched on a handful of college
campuses long ago played out on the national stage
again i think he is missing what was actually happening
a right wing
unwilling to move out all becoming intractable is positioned and a
left-wing
tried to reach out
the country moving far-right and brocco bob i think completely missing it
again in the other asi hope u writes about a longingly says he writes about
the politics of the mid twentieth century
when both parties have liberal wings
and conservative wings uh... there's a book uh... a political signed out a book
she is really uh... political scientist keep cool howard rosenthal they have
uh...
devised the strategy ed the the new yorker reports a widely used system to
measure the ideology of members of congress
they right one oh mama took office there was no ideological overlap between the
two parties
at all this was in two thousand i'd know ideological overlap so we're here in
spore was gone
which makes
you're in fort rather pointless in the house most conservative democrat bobby
bright alabama for the last of the most liberal republican joseph kellman
wheezing enna
uh... and then the conservative democrat ben nelson of nebraska much further to
the left in the most liberal republican olympia snowe according to pull in
rosenthal's badder and again widely accepted data
both the house and senate multiple more polarized david anytime since that
eighteen night
in the eighty nine
it also goes on here polarization also affected the two parties differently and
here's the key to this dot just polarization at a particular kind of
polarization and if you fail to acknowledge that particular brand of
polarization
you're missing the whole point
the republican party
has drifted much farther right from the democratic party jacob hacker
we have a graphic for this is professor yaley wrote a book and two thousand six
called off-center he documented this trend
and he points out that
since nineteen seventy five
senate republicans move roughly twice as far to the right
as senate democrats moved to the laughed
and then even more so
house republicans
hoover uplink six times
that's part of the right
has house democrats
moved to the lapd
six times
if you ignore that it merely saying more polarized
you're not a anyway good effectively deal
with that kind of polarization
what does a lot of sort of deal with all this information
uh... i think what he does is make a number of significant and serious
miscalculations there was a fight that developed very early on as for the
recession the magnitude of the recession set in for the incoming president
the incoming chairman of his counsel economic advisers christina romer again
sort of peter or sagging incoming budget director he wanted fiscal restraint
she wanted a bigger stimulus package
and the president kept thinking what i'll do was all work this out with
congress but a congress that instantly
instantly began to label him
as far left having no interest in working together
stimulus reads here
first test of obama's period pollack's politics is played in the center of the
field
and uh... g_o_p_'s ability to define him
as a liberal
late january two thousand five
the bill had cleared the house without a single republican vote
without a single vote
but they are bill that he had significantly watered down
jim burnett in the senate in south carolina call it the worst piece of
economic legislation congress is considered a hundred years
not since the creation income-tax estimate
has the united states seriously entertained a policy so comprehensively
hostile to economic freedom or so arrogantly indifferent to economic
realities
and he loaded this bill with tax cuts so that he could lower republicans in he
brings in the tax cuts jim demand reactions way
timid says about the tax cuts
think of it this way says the net if nearly every democrat in congress
supports a tax cut it's not really a tax cut
obama thinking
i'll be able to work this out
even as the severity the economic crisis became clear they work on the recovery
act which ended up being seven hundred maybe seven billion dollars
three votes
in the senate backed out one of those votes came from arlen specter who later
became of the democrats
and it reads here was the first recognition the congressional
republicans have little interest in the president's offer to meet them halfway
it turned out it says here
the ideological divide he'd set out to bridge
was not just a psycho drama
and again and then it starts to happen with health care as well and michelly
you see an administration that the memo show they ask him
uh... about the option of doing it through reconciliation and not a vote
reconciliations we all know one of a lot of public option to pass
sixty-vote you couldn't get the public option troops
the white house could still fashion a bipartisan bill a memo sent osvaldo says
but it was important to have the fifty one-vote option as a backup plan the
reconciliation backup plan
so they would say
uh... below this line which she was offered three options agree disagree or
let's discuss
and he goes with the great and then we know of course
because he thought no after move out i have to bring everybody together
uh... we won't have the reconciliation will just go for the sixty votes and the
only thing he could get past this week learned of course was something
that did not have the key element in healthcare legislation
and have been public after
you know ives a fascinating piece uh...
uh... i'll read one more thing here uh... if there's moderation says here
never suede republicans nor does his attention interest groups
or uh... or or willingness to cut bowl of social programs through the rest of
two thousand i was the anti-government tea party movement gather strength
successes tea parties gather strength
conservative voters began to speak of a creeping americans socialism
socialism
brocco block
obama's aids corals are how the president should respond
romer christina romer again head of the council of economic value she wanted to
press for kids keynesian case first policies to defend the proposition of
increased government spending but that will work that that was the responsible
way for government to spend the money
or sag continues to fight for washing his deficit hawks again thinking that
will appeal to problem but they don't even care about that it doesn't matter
or sad won the argument republicans workplan either way
or sagar should be treated as a commission partly because it provides
fiscal credibility during a period
which is unlikely would sit succeeded in acting legislation
one final quotes as we have our our last graphic on this
a thomas mann and and norman ornstein these again well-respected guys not guys
uh... for the brookings institute
uh... and or or she of course a conservative
uh... these guys write this
what and that again conservative
one of our two major parties the republicans has become an insurgent out
wire ideologically extremely reads contemptuous of the inherited social
economic policy was you scores won't compromise on persuaded by conventional
understanding a fax evidence in science
dismissive
of the legitimacy
of its political opposition
uh... and these are the guys you try to work
but of course the bottom line is the republicans won't play anyway
play attic