look tim ny ag obama necbirnbaumprotocol

We didn’t even make the first cut, despite the fact that, by all the objective metrics, the American bid was the best. Subsequently, I think we’ve learned that IOC’s decisions are similar to FIFA’s decisions: a little bit cooked. A very effective committee had flown to Copenhagen to make their presentation, and Michelle had gone with them, and I got a call, I think before the thing had ended but on fairly short notice, that everybody thought that if I flew out there we had a good chance of getting it and it might be worth essentially just taking a one-day trip. Probably the best signifier of that - and I remember this vividly - was when Chicago had the bid for the 2016 Olympics. There are two other elements that I think contributed to the Republican approach: The first was that even where their leadership wanted to cooperate, the tenor of the Republican base had shifted in a way that made it very difficult for them to cooperate without paying a price internally. Well, I didn’t find out about those until McConnell made that statement, and then some stories trickled in about some dinners with Gingrich and others, but as I said before, by that time, their strategy was apparent. When did you find out that they had had these meetings? It’s been documented that Republicans held meetings before your inauguration in which they decided on this strategy. Related Storiesīernie Sanders on the Failures, and Successes, of Obama’s Wall Street Legacy It established the dynamic for not just my presidency but for a much sharper party-line approach to managing both the House and the Senate that I think is going to have consequences for years to come. It was that second strategy that they pursued with great discipline. If they were able to maintain uniform opposition to whatever I proposed, that would send a signal to the public of gridlock, dysfunction, and that would help them win seats in the midterms. And I think we realized at that point what proved to be the case in that first year and that second year was a calculation based on what turned out to be pretty smart politics but really bad for the country: If they cooperated with me, then that would validate our efforts. At that point we didn’t even actually have a stimulus bill drawn up, and we hadn’t meant to talk about it. On the drive up to Capitol Hill to meet with the House Republican Caucus, John Boehner released a press statement saying that they were opposed to the stimulus. We felt, I think, that as an opening proposal, it was ambitious but needed and that we would begin negotiations with the Republicans and they would show us things that they thought also needed to happen.

We had tax cuts we had funding for the states so that teachers wouldn’t be laid off and firefighters and so forth we had an infrastructure component. Probably the moment in which I realized that the Republican leadership intended to take a different tack was actually as we were shaping the stimulus bill, and I vividly remember having prepared a basic proposal that had a variety of components. When I came into office, my working assumption was that because we were in crisis, and the crisis had begun on the Republicans’ watch, that there would be a window in which they would feel obliged to cooperate on a common effort to dig us out of this massive hole. He validated what I think most of this town knew. How did that comment strike you? Was it news?īy that point it was pretty apparent by his actions that it was already his No. 1 goal is to make you a one-term president. Let’s start with the time in 2010 when Mitch McConnell publicly says that his No. Before his conversation with Jonathan Chait, he chose five moments that, he believes, will have outsized historical impact. He led America through a period of dramatic, convulsive change - an era tha t New York Magazine explores this week in its cover story. On August 25, after a short trip to Baton Rouge to assess flooding in Louisiana and before what will likely be his last visit to China on Air Force One, Barack Obama sat down at the White House to reflect on the past eight years.

Look tim ny ag obama necbirnbaumprotocol