John Podesta Responds To Your Questions
John Podesta Responds To Your Questions
Yesterday, ThinkProgress provided our readers an opportunity to ask John Podesta questions pertaining to his service on the Obama transition team. You responded with great enthusiasm, offering more than 100 comments and questions. Thank you!
I sat down with John yesterday afternoon for about 20 minutes. In that period of time, we were able to get to 8 of your questions. The first one I asked him was the top-rated question, as voted on by the ThinkProgress community. It was submitted by user curtisteff, and it read: “Why is President Obama giving up so much to try to appease the conservatives?” Podesta offered this response:
I think that if you look at the [economic recovery] bill that’s making its way through the House and then will be taken up by the Senate this week and voted on and put on the President’s desk by President’s Day, what you see in there is the thrust that he laid down early on – really back in December and in January.
I think he was willing to have a dialogue with Republicans. So far, that dialogue has been largely one in which it’s good-natured but the Republicans don’t seem to really want to come to the table and talk seriously about what needs to be done for the country. So be it — that’s their choice. But I think he did want to change the tone in Washington. He wanted to talk to people across the political spectrum. He wanted to open up the government to people from all perspectives around the country. That’s what WhiteHouse.gov is about. That’s what the transition — change.gov — was about, to try to solicit ideas from across the political spectrum to meet the big challenges.
But I would not confuse that with an idea that he’s compromising on his big goals of trying to deal with the very difficult economic circumstances we face and deal with the big challenges this country faces on energy, education, health care, and the other things.
The next seven other questions I asked John were (in this order):
“Does Obama plan to create some kind of commission to look into past abuses of our obligations under both domestic law and foreign treaty?” [submitted by fletc3her]
“Is Single-Payer, Universal Health Care off the table?” [submitted by CVille Dem]
“How were you able to get a man [President Bush] who has usually been so divisive to work together in order to meet your goals?” [submitted by unbelievable]
“How much of the flurry of regulation weakening and last-minute government appointments done by Bush in the closing days of his administration does Obama expect to reverse?” [submitted by misshusseinmolly]
“Did you ever consider scrapping or massively reorganising Cabinent level positions?” [submitted by KarinJR]
“Who will play the part of that progressive attack dog?” [submitted by Alex Krogh-Grabbe]
“What are the ways for citizens in communities to help President Obama?” [submitted by ianok]
Watch the videos for his responses:
While all the questions were posted for public consumption on the blog, John did not know which ones I would choose to ask him, nor did we discuss beforehand any answers he might give. What you see on these videos is John’s authentic reaction to your submitted questions.
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video not working.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:53 amcorrection; video is working, audio is not. Can anyone read lips?
January 29th, 2009 at 9:56 amOur audio seems just fine. Not sure what the problem might be.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:00 amDarn — the filter here at work won’t let me watch the video (even if it WAS working). I’ll have to wait until I get home to get my answer.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:00 amAudio works for me, on a Mac.
Thank you for this, Faiz.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:06 amFaiz, my coffee is cold, damnit!
But the video works.
Thx.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:09 amworks here on windows ok…..
January 29th, 2009 at 10:14 ammisshusseinmolly Says:
Darn — the filter here at work won’t let me watch the video (even if it WAS working).
Same here. Any transcript?
January 29th, 2009 at 10:15 amFaiz and John, thank you for this. It’s a nice opportunity to make our voices heard to more than just other commenters, and I hope you all plan to do more of these events in the future.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:16 amComing on the heels of pointless concessions to the republicans (and the earlier video of Dick Armey), Glenn Greenwald’s column is an absolute must read!
Hyperlinks in the original.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:21 amjohn ,
January 29th, 2009 at 10:53 amI guess I am expecting too much on the answer of whether or not Obama’s administration intends to look into Bushes abuses of the past 8 years . We have already heard this answer from Obama before and to be candid it sounds disappointing and at best a bit like passing the buck .
If our laws and our treaties can be violated with such impunity , if 100’s of 1000’s of people can be killed and wounded based on outright lies , our basic rights violated , our international reputation tortured and our constitution destroyed and applicable laws never applied to the ELITE perpetrators , our system of laws has failed miserably.
How can other countries and indeed our own citizens trust the American government when the rule of law had broken down so badly.
The old saying goes that a man is only as good as his word and let me submit that the same applies to nations and governments . We have fallen so very far when the crimes are so numerous and utterly transparent to the majority of the planet .
So,Podesta thinks that Obama is not compromising on his big goals? He thinks that Obama really believes that we should waste 1/3 of our economic stimulus on tax cuts? He thinks that Obama really believes that repairing/ upgrading the national Mall, or fully funding Family Planning Clinics for poor women will not create any new jobs, or better economic conditions for those women?
January 29th, 2009 at 10:54 amfreeman Says:
john ,
I guess I am expecting too much on the answer of whether or not Obama’s administration intends to look into Bushes abuses of the past 8 years . We have already heard this answer from Obama before and to be candid it sounds disappointing and at best a bit like passing the buck .
If our laws and our treaties can be violated with such impunity , if 100’s of 1000’s of people can be killed and wounded based on outright lies , our basic rights violated , our international reputation tortured and our constitution destroyed and applicable laws never applied to the ELITE perpetrators , our system of laws has failed miserably.
How can other countries and indeed our own citizens trust the American government when the rule of law had broken down so badly.
The old saying goes that a man is only as good as his word and let me submit that the same applies to nations and governments . We have fallen so very far when the crimes are so numerous and utterly transparent to the majority of the planet .
I guess it really is as simple as figuring out exactly who Obama’s constituency is; the villagers inside the beltway who were complicit in Bush’s crimes, or the citizens outside the beltway who believed that Obama understood their concern over the trashing of law and order, and an executive who believed he was above the law.
January 29th, 2009 at 11:01 amSo upset my question (”What’s your fave color and what do you like in a girl?”) didn’t get asked.
I knew I should have gone with “Who’s your favorite Monkee?”
January 29th, 2009 at 11:11 amFantastic format. Hopefully, more like this in the future. Nice Job, TP. Good get.
January 29th, 2009 at 11:14 amBut I would not confuse that with an idea that he’s compromising on his big goals of trying to deal with the very difficult economic circumstances we face and deal with the big challenges this country faces on energy, education, health care, and the other things.
So how is removing provisions from the bill not compromising? These provisions were removed for no good reason other than to appease the conservatives. President Obama is heading the same direction Congress did in early 2007. Will he realize his error when his approval rating drops as low as Congress?
January 29th, 2009 at 11:17 amIt has the feel of “Ask the White House” under the past administration, RIP.
January 29th, 2009 at 11:46 amDear John
The longer Obama delays in revealing the ‘big secret’ the more it bemcomes his ‘big secret’.
I would have loved to hear your answer to this question but I guess I’m going to have to wait a bit longer.
January 29th, 2009 at 3:41 pmI’m very disappointed to hear that Obama is not considering single-payer healthcare at all. I wonder what he would do if Conyers’ bill picked up steam…..
However, as Podesta pointed out, we should not be surprised. Obama’s best quality so far is that he is sticking to his campaign policies – we are getting exactly what we voted for and for most things, I’m in full support.
Which is why I will continue to work for single-payer in my own state, California, and why others should work for it in their states, too.
http://www.healthcareforall.org
January 29th, 2009 at 5:06 pmThanks Faiz and John.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:46 pm