A Report Card For Obama's First Month In Office

DON GONYEA, host:

This is Talk of the Nation. I'm Don Gonyea in Washington. It's only day 38 of the Obama presidency, and surely no president's first month has been quite like this one - a stimulus package that approaches $1 trillion - that's a year's worth of work right there. The president has used both blunt talk and soaring rhetoric to rally the people during the economic crisis.

(Soundbite of speech by President Barack Obama)

President BARACK OBAMA: But we are living through difficult and uncertain times. Tonight, I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.

(Soundbite of applause)

GONYEA: But there have been some clumsy missteps as well, prompting the president to say, well, give a listen.

(Soundbite of interview with President Barack Obama)

President BARACK OBAMA (United States): I'm here on television saying I screwed up. And that's part of the - your responsibility is not never making mistakes, it's owning up to them and trying to make sure you don't repeat them.

GONYEA: We'll sift through it all to get some sense of what it tell us about what is yet to come. We also want to hear from you. What's the one thing that President Obama has done that impressed you or disappointed you or maybe surprised you? Our number here in Washington is 800-989-8255. That's 800-989-8255. Our email address is talk@npr.org. And you can join the conversation at our Web site. Go to npr.org and click on Talk of the Nation. Joining us now from the studios of the Christian Science Monitor is Peter Baker. Peter Baker is - despite the studio he's talking to us from - is the White House correspondent for the New York Times. Welcome to the show, Peter.

Mr. PETER BAKER (White House Correspondent, The New York Times): Hey, thanks for having me.

GONYEA: President Obama likes to use the word unprecedented when he's talking about something he has done or something he is proposing or something his administration stands for or the circumstances he faces, certainly. I guess I'm wondering, how does his first month to you compare to some of the other presidents of recent vintage?

Mr. BAKER: Unprecedented, yeah.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GONYEA: Well, there it is.

Mr. BAKER: Look, editors teach us not to use words like unprecedented, never before, first time, because somebody will always find something that will show us to be wrong. But this has certainly been one of the most extraordinary openings of any presidency, certainly in generations. To come into office as he does, with two wars still raging, the threat of terrorism still very alive and the economic crisis that we are now still living with in very vivid pain, is extraordinary. Throw that, of course - on top of that, his troubles getting some Cabinet people appointed, the very massive legislative spending and tax cut package he's already passed, and then today, a budget document that in effect offers to sort of transform American society and government's involvement with it.

GONYEA: Well, let's look at that budget a little bit, not line by line certainly. In fact, he hasn't given us the line by line yet…

Mr. BAKER: Not yet.

GONYEA: But they've given us kind of the road map or the broad outlines. What does that budget tell us now about where he's going? I mean, for so long, we talked about the theoretical Barack Obama presidency, going back to that cold day in Springfield, Illinois, when he announced his candidacy in February of '07. We're only 38 days in, but it's not theoretical anymore, and the budget has some clues about where they're going, right?

Mr. BAKER: That's right. This is a very, very revealing philosophical document - political document. This is the budget document that liberal policymakers or liberal theoreticians have been wanting to propose in Washington for a long time. It does a couple of things. First, it proposes to redistribute wealth through important changes in the tax structure - taxes will go up on wealthiest, who have done pretty well in recent years. They will go down on the middle class and the lower-income wage earners.

And it does a couple of other things. It's begins to transform the health care system in a way that it has been proposed in the past but never actually happened. And it proposes to force industry to re-tool itself to be cleaner, so as to reduce the effects of climate change. That's also an economic proposal because it will end up creating a lot of revenues that will change hands between businesses and between consumers and business, as well as the government itself.

GONYEA: It's interesting - I mean, you used the term "redistribute the wealth." That was an allegation that John McCain and Sarah Palin threw at Barack Obama during the campaign. But here we are looking at the first budget, and there it is: higher taxes on the wealthiest - people making over $250,000 a year.

Mr. BAKER: Right, exactly. Look - you know, it's not - it can be used as an allegation. In this case, you know, we'll let other people make it - of it what they will, but as a matter of simple facts and policy, what he's proposing to do is what they call tax fairness, is the notion that - the theory that the wealthiest have done the best in these last number of years and that the tax structure needs to be adjusted to shift some of that to those on the lower end and the middle end of the spectrum who haven't benefited quite as much from the bounty of American prosperity before this current economy took that away from everybody.

GONYEA: Much has been written, spoken about how this president kind of immediately seemed to embody the office, felt very comfortable in the suit of the president from day one - in fact, maybe even from Election Day. It seemed like - almost like that's when his administration started. But there have been moments where we've seen them kind of struggle with the learning curve, specifically some Cabinet appointments. That's been the bumpy road, that's the stuff he's had to apologize for. How meaningful is that?

Mr. BAKER: Well, you know, it's meaningful only in that it will be seen by others in Washington - other power players - as signs of weakness perhaps. I think it certainly took away a little of the sheen of the new president coming in with the honeymoon to have to find three different people to be your Commerce secretary or to have so many top appointments turn out not to have fully paid their taxes at a time, by the way, you're proposing to raise them on everybody else. So, you know, those are damaging things. Are they long-lasting damage? You know, that's debatable, but I think that it took a little of the sheen off of an otherwise efficient and largely popular, according to the polls, transition period into office.

GONYEA: Peter, you are going to hang with us. We're talking to Peter Baker, White House correspondent for the New York Times. We're going to bring in a couple of guys you know well. Joining us now from the offices of the Washington Post is Eugene Robinson. He's an op-ed columnist at the Post. Eugene, welcome to the show.

Mr. EUGENE ROBINSON (Columnist, The Washington Post): Good to be here, Don. Hi, Peter.

Mr. BAKER: Eugene.

GONYEA: And David Gergen is also with us. He served in the administrations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton and now teaches leadership and public service at Harvard University. Mr. Gergen, thanks for joining us.

Professor DAVID GERGEN (Public Service, Director, Kennedy School for Public Leadership, Harvard University): Thank you. It's good to say I'm - good to be here with your other guests.

GONYEA: Eugene, let's start with you. I'm sure you love it when people toss words from your column at you.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. ROBINSON: (Laughing) I do, most of the time.

GONYEA: You recently called this a presidency on steroids. What did you mean by that?

Mr. ROBINSON: Just think of all the extraordinary stuff that's happened, really, just in the past - what, five weeks? We've had this huge stimulus package passed that would be an extraordinary achievement for any president at any point in his presidency, and it happened in the course of a month. Look at the executive orders and other executive actions that have come out of the Oval Office - ordering the closure of Guantanamo and the end to torture and managing to rectify the children's health issue. It's just been an amazing flurry of activity in what seems like a much longer time than it actually is, just because so much has happened…

GONYEA: It's interesting…

Mr. ROBINSON: And because the…

GONYEA: It's interesting too - you mentioned Guantanamo. We have, you know, an extra 17,000 troops to Afghanistan. Tomorrow, we may get a timeline on a pull-back from Iraq. I mean, these are all foreign policy things which have gotten barely a mention because of the economic situation.

Mr. ROBINSON: It's true. The economic situation has become such a dominant issue that we hardly noticed that, yes, we're sending 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and what exactly are they going to do - I don't think there's really a broad public understanding of what the mission is, how it has changed and if, indeed, it has changed. It's - there's just so much going on; it's hard, I think, for anyone to keep on top of it all. And it's a wonder that the White House has even - can keep on top of it all. You know, it's Thursday. What are we doing today? Oh, a $3 trillion budget. Let's put out a $3 trillion budget and let everybody pour over that for a while.

GONYEA: All this while struggling with the email system over there, too.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GONYEA: David Gergen, you've watched a lot first months of a lot of presidents, some of them from very close, some of them from inside. We all followed President Obama on the campaign trail for a couple of years, some of us right on the plane. And you get a sense from watching speech after speech that you know a person pretty well. Maybe a good chunk of that is illusion, just because how well do you really know someone? But, I mean, I remember watching him from the back of an event at a high school in Nashua, New Hampshire, January of last year, and you were there. I'm wondering - what it is about that candidate then and the president now that maybe has surprised you? Is the guy you see now the guy you saw then or are we seeing a very different person now that he's in the office?

Prof. GERGEN: I think what's surprised me the most is how consistent he has been between his campaign and his presidency. Usually, you see people shift gears when they actually get elected. But if you listen to that speech a couple of nights ago, you know, much of the rhetoric in that speech was almost word for word what he was saying on the campaign trail. I think that's one of the reasons that the public has rallied to him, that they find a consistency there.

At the same time, there appears to be personal growth. He became a much better candidate by the end of the campaign than he was when it started. And I think that's carried over to his presidency, but I'm not sure any of us were prepared to believe during the campaign that he would be as audacious as president as he seemed to be in the campaign. You know, I agree with Peter in saying this has been extraordinary and with Gene about this is, you know, presidency on steroids. Listening to him the other night, it seemed to me…

GONYEA: David, I'm going to have you hold that thought right there for a moment…

Prof. GERGEN: Sure.

GONYEA: If you would. Whatever your take out there listening, it's been a memorable first month for the president. We're talking about the successes and the disappointments so far. Has he done anything that's surprised you? Give us a call at 800-989-8255 or drop us an email, talk@npr.org. I'm Don Gonyea. It's Talk of the Nation from NPR News.

(Soundbite of music)

GONYEA: This is Talk of the Nation. I'm Don Gonyea in Washington. Just over a month into his term, President Obama has so far taken two oaths of office, nominated three people for commerce secretary and visited more than a half dozen states. More to come this week. If you want to look back at all the significant events and developments from Mr. Obama's first month, check out NPR's The Obama Tracker. It's at npr.org. It gives you a day-by-day rundown of the president throughout his term. Go to npr.org and then click on Talk of the Nation to find that.

We're looking at the first month of the Obama administration - what's worked, what hasn't, and what it tells us, most importantly, about what's still to come. Looking at the last 38 days, what has the president done that has surprised you? Our number is 800-989-8255; our email address, talk@npr.org. And again, you can join the conversation at our Web site. Go to npr.org and click on Talk of the Nation.

Our guests, a distinguished group: Peter Baker, he covers the White House for the New York Times, also Eugene Robinson, the Washington Post columnist, and David Gergen, he directs the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Gentlemen, let's go to some phone calls. The first person we have is Jen, who's calling from San Francisco. Hi, Jen.

JEN (Caller): Hi. Yes, thanks for taking my call. I guess what my comment was that - one thing that - actually, I love Obama. I voted for him. I think he's great. The one thing that I was a little bit disappointed about was that he (Laughing) apologized. I don't think he screwed up that bad. In fact, I doubt - I don't think he screwed up. I think that his Cabinet picks - you know, he tried to pick the best person, and maybe his vetting team screwed up but not him. And I feel like if anyone were to - I think he did that because he wanted to be open and - What is the word? - transparent but - and honest, as supposed to Bush. I think that Bush, (Laughing) on the other hand, did screw up. I mean, sending people into war that was unfounded, you know, without a good reason is a screw up.

(Soundbite of laughter)

JEN: So, that's my comment.

GONYEA: All right. Thank you, Jen. All right.

JEN: I'll take my response off the air.

GONYEA: David Gergen, I cut you off before the break. Let's let you pick off by way of talking - pick up by way of talking about that apology. I guess we call it one and not five, even though it was five networks back to back to back to back to back.

Prof. GERGEN: Well, she has a very - it was a very good point. I mean, mistakes were clearly made at levels below him, but I thought he was very gracious, as well as wise, to take responsibility. It reminded me very much - it wasn't as anywhere near a big a deal, but one of the most important things Jack Kennedy did in the beginning of his presidency was take - say, I was responsible for the Bay of Pigs, which was a serious policy disaster. And guess what? His popularity went up 10 points.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Prof. GERGEN: So, you know, I thought that - I thought the president was - made a good move. But I want to go back just one thing, and that is just how audacious he is. I think many of us in the campaign weren't quite sure, is he serious when he promises he wants to do this and do that? And the speech this week showed that he was. He was very serious, so that I came away from the speech thinking, you know, the first half, he sounded like Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, and the second half, he sounded like Lyndon Johnson, you know, fighting for the great society. And when you've got Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson all rolled in one, that's quite a presidency.

GONYEA: There was plenty of the, you know, the lofty rhetoric, the inspirational words in the speech, but there were also kind of wonky moments laying out what a policy needs to be.

Prof. GERGEN: Well (Laughing), there were that. But I thought overall the speech was politically very effective. I do think the question arises - and I'm very curious about what Peter and Gene think about this - whether in fact, it's possible and whether you can succeed in taking on both the recession and health care and energy all at the same time. My experience in the White House has been, at least just from a managerial standpoint, that it's very, very hard to manage huge projects like this simultaneously without one of them falling apart.

But the other thing is whether in fact it's wise, given - I mean, David Broder had a column about this - is it a gamble to take your eye off the recession and try to do health care and energy, when we don't know where, in fact, the bottom is on the economy? So, there's some big questions, it seems to me, surrounding how audacious he is and whether this is the best way forward. And if the gamble pays off, of course, he'll be a historic president, but if it doesn't, all of us will pay a price. I'm just curious how more people feel about it at this point.

GONYEA: Peter, why don't you jump in on that just briefly? Is he biting off too much or is he - as he would say, I'm doing all this because I have to do all this.

Mr. BAKER: Well, I think David makes - raises a very, very important issue exactly right. I mean, to bite off all this at one time is a massive challenge, a massive potential headache. What they would say is that you can't really address the economy in a meaningful way unless you also address health care and energy. And that therefore, to do them all at the same time makes sense, because let's just reorder everything right now to the place we think it ought to be, and then we'll have an economy that will ultimately prosper and grow and benefit people in a better way.

Now, that may make some - a lot of sense in a philosophical way, but as a strategic thing, Congress has a certain pipeline, and that pipeline is made out of concrete, not out of something flexible. And there's only so much you can sort of throw into that pipeline at a time. Let's look at the nominations real quickly. They wanted to speed their new team faster than any new administration coming in has ever done, but in the end, right now, they've stuffed enough nominees into the pipeline, they're not coming out the other side any faster than they have under previous presidents.

GONYEA: And Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post - they also - they're not only, you know, juggling all those big things, they have to kind of balance the politics of each too, right? I mean, those don't go away.

Mr. ROBINSON: They do. I think - but I think the politics actually play a big role in the decision to go ahead. It seems to me, the essential two big tasks that they're going to try to do this year are, of course, the recession and health care. The president threw down a marker the other night saying, it cannot wait another year - reforming health care cannot wait another year, so he's going to do that this year. Energy you can frame as a longer-term issue. They put money in the first stimulus package - I think I'm probably right in calling it the first stimulus package - for some of the energy transformation…

GONYEA: And he let us know as much over the weekend.

Mr. ROBINSON: He sees in the future.

GONYEA: Or in the speech, too, that there's more to come with the…

Mr. ROBINSON: Right, right, exactly. But health care is - everyone knows it's huge, and that involves getting a gimungo(ph) piece of legislation through Congress that changes the way we think about and practice health care in this country. That is an enormous task. Yet, I think the politics of it are such that really, on both sides of the aisle, people who have worked on this issue for a long time see an opportunity right now. And I won't call it a unique opportunity, but one that doesn't come around very often, when the stars seem to be aligned, and it seems that maybe you could actually get it done. And I think part of it is a fear that if you wait, the stars might come unaligned, and you might not be able to move on it.

GONYEA: Let's see what some of our listeners are saying. Richard is calling from Wichita, and he wants to talk about the new secretary of state, is that correct?

RICHARD (Caller): Yeah, my biggest surprise was that Obama's least qualified cabinet appointment in the middle of two wars was his chief diplomat, the secretary of state, who's got no diplomatic or government management experience, nor any real foreign affairs expertise, which is especially troubling because of Obama's own absence of expertise in this area.

GONYEA: She spent a lot of time traveling the world as both a senator and as first lady, but that doesn't get it for you?

RICHARD: Well, she's the least qualified secretary of state in living memory, if I'm not mistaken.

GONYEA: Let's get our guests to weigh in. David Gergen?

Prof. GERGEN: Well, (Laughing) I don't agree with the characterization she's the least qualified, but I have to say this - I think that she's off to a very good start. Her trip to Asia, it seems to me, was both wise and well-done. The foreign policy team overall has been - it's gotten off to a very effective start. And you know, they're doing a little bit below the radar screen, but they haven't had any - in other presidencies by this time, we've normally had some big blooper or mistake or stumble. They haven't had that. I think General Jones, who is sitting there at the National Security Council desk, has probably had a lot to do with that. He's been very quiet and almost invisible. But I think he's been effective.

And I must say on the experience point, if you look at the special envoys who've been added to the team, with Richard Holbrooke going into Afghanistan and Pakistan and George Mitchell going into the Middle East and Dennis Ross in the wings and possibly be an envoy to Iran, there's an awful lot of experience represented by those folks, as well as by the vice president. So, I don't - I think the question we've had here for foreign policy is not one of just how much experience we have there but how much judgment do we have? And, you know, is this a well-considered set of decisions that are coming out of the administration? And so far, I have to say, while it's been cautious, it does seem to have been effective and smooth.

GONYEA: Let's go to Anne in Raleigh, North Carolina. Anne, thanks for joining us. Your comments?

ANNE (Caller): Well, it was along the same lines as the previous caller. At first, I thought that that was one of the poorest decisions I heard coming out of the Obama administration, and I was disappointed, too. But after reading the press accounts of her trip to Asia, I was actually highly impressed and it brought me back again to a trust of the president.

GONYEA: And Eugene, why don't you weigh in on this? What does the fact that he selected Hillary Clinton to be, you know, in one of those top three Cabinet posts say to you about it?

Mr. ROBINSON: Well, I think first, it says he's a very confident person. He's not threatened by his formidable - having his most formidable opponent in the primaries in this vitally important role in his administration. That's the first thing it says. And the second, it says to me, is that they developed a lot of mutual respect over the course of the campaign. I believe that's the case. They didn't - it wasn't always a pleasant experience for the two of them. They didn't - they weren't always best buds or anything. But I think they did come to respect each other. And I think he chose someone who he thought would be a strong and effective secretary of state, who would deal effectively with the world.

GONYEA: Let's hear from another caller. Charlie is in Wichita. Charlie, welcome to Talk of the Nation.

CHARLIE (Caller): Well, hi. Thank you very much. It's an honor to speak to you and this distinguished cast of characters. I just wanted to remind the president that from the bully pulpit, anything and everything he says has weight and merit. And I was listening Tuesday night. I live in the air capital of the world, and we build business jets. And every time he makes a snide passing remark about it, it costs us jobs here. We went from a forecast last summer before the crash of 6,100 new jobs this year in this business. We're now passing 6,400 layoffs as people cancel their jet requests. And I just want to remind him that he flies on the biggest, most expensive and intricate corporate jet the world has ever known. And if he'd like to park it at Andrews and go out to Dulles and stand in line, I think he would quickly appreciate the value of corporate jets.

GONYEA: All right. Thank you, Charlie. Peter Baker, corporate jets - they have become a big symbolic target ever since those guys from the Big Three flew to Washington to ask for money.

Mr. BAKER: Well, and what's interesting - there's a real interesting choice facing President Obama along the lines that the caller just mentioned. You know, he's - he has sort of taken issue with corporate executives and their jets. I think he's referring specifically, in his defense, to those who are, you know, in banks or firms that have taken taxpayer money at the moment, not just across the board. But that's certainly been a very populist kind of statement that he's made that kind of, you know - very popular.

But he's got a choice coming up himself. Long before he became president, the government started a project to build a new Marine One helicopter - actually, 28 of them - that would serve the president, the vice president and others who are served by that unit. And this project has gone so far over budget that it's now at $11.2 billion. That would be roughly $400 million for each of these helicopters. That's more than the last Air Force One actually cost. President was asked about it the other day by Senator John McCain...

GONYEA: By John McCain.

Mr. BAKER: As a matter of fact.

GONYEA: Yeah.

Mr. BAKER: And the president said, I don't know why we need it. You know, I'm perfectly happy with the ones I've got. So, they've got to figure out what to do with that contract, and that may be, you know, a symbolic test.

GONYEA: You're listening to Talk of the Nation from NPR News. Let's go to - where are we going? Let's try right here (Laughing). Kaye - are you in San Francisco, Kaye? Did I hit the right button?

KAYE (Caller): Yes, I am.

GONYEA: Hi. Your comments.

KAYE: Hi, Don. And hello, David Gergen. All politics aside, I'm really a libertarian, so I did not vote for him. But I am so pleased that he has consistently held high standards for public discourse. More importantly, I think he assumes high expectations of our behavior, and since he doesn't shirk responsibility - and sometimes I think he even assumes a little more than really was necessary, as the former caller pointed out - but this represents the quintessential American values and statesmanship that has been sorely missing lately. And it serves a great mentorship role for our youth.

GONYEA: All right.

KAYE: That's what I think he is, Don.

GONYEA: Thank you for calling.

KAYE: You bet.

GONYEA: David, I guess I want to ask you. I mean, you teach leadership at Harvard. I'm wondering what you see in these past 38 days that maybe we didn't see over the course of the campaign. I mean, you talked about the sheer kind of audacity to do things. But are there little things that you have noticed that maybe you didn't see over the course of the campaign that make you go, hmmm, that's going to be worth watching?

Prof. GERGEN: Well, I'm wondering - the caller raised a point about Barack Obama serving as a role model, and I do think that there is a degree to which he is a cultural figure, as well as a political figure and that that's going to be important for his overall impact as president. He could be - you know, it's been said many times, but I think it's worth repeating that becoming - as the first African-American to the office, as an African-American male in particular, he could be an inspirational figure.

And I think what we've seen in the presidency is also the family emerging more and the kind of family values that they represent. And that - I - it just seems like a very, very wholesome family and one that many can admire. And I think that's going to be - not only for young black males but for many others, whether you're white or black or whatever - I think that there are certain aspects when a president does uphold and speak for a culture in ways that make a difference. And this is one that so many are watching so closely and I think enjoying up to this point.

Now, whether it's all going to work out in the end, I think, is the great drama that surrounds this. But he's sure conducting himself with a lot of dignity. And I think that Michelle Obama and the kids have been a real plus. I think people are - like getting used to this sort of new kind of couple - a younger couple, black couple. It's just very, very interesting to watch.

GONYEA: David Gergen thank you for joining us, also Peter Baker from the New York Times, Eugene Robinson from the Washington Post. You are listening to Talk of the Nation from NPR News. I'm Don Gonyea. Up next - we do have a spoiler alert. We'll talk with "Top Chef" finalist Carla Hall. Most of her fans wanted her to win last night. Did she? Stay with us. It's Talk of the Nation from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.