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Jeffrey Goldberg: Why Obama fears for our democracy

The first volume of Barack Obamas memoirs puts to the test whether a good writer can survive being president. Obama entered politics as a writer, not the other way around. Dreams From My Father, published in 1995, when he was 33, tells of his search for identity and meaning as the son of a white woman from Kansas and a Black man from Kenya. By almost any standard, its an exceptional first book, restless and subtle and driven by a deepening self-knowledge. The story ends shortly before Obama enters the hard world of Chicago politics in the mid-90snot an obvious destination for the books sensitive protagonist. Years later, during his 2004 Senate race, Obama told a magazine journalist following him around Illinois that hed like to trade places for a day and be the one observing and taking notes. This tension between the writer and politician, the dreamer and activist, detachment and involvementwanting to be in politics but not of itplays out in one form or another all through Obamas career, and in his new memoir.

A Promised Land is indisputably a book by the author of Dreams From My Father. Theres the same capacity for self-awareness and self-criticism, the talent for description and narrative pacing, the empathy and wry asides. The best passagessuch as those describing Obamas political rise from Chicago to the Iowa caucus and the Democratic nomination in 2008have the fresh energy of experience the author has longed to revisit. The bigger the politician gets, the harder the writer has to struggle to stay in command of the story. In the account of Obamas presidency, which ends with the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, the narrative voice disappears for long stretches of policy debates, historical contexts, and foreign trips. Im painfully aware that a more gifted writer could have found a way to tell the same story with greater brevity, Obama admits in the preface. But somehow, through a decade and a half of intense exposure, speeches, interviews, meetings, briefings, and galas, the ex-president has preserved his inner life, and with it his literary light. That tension between the public figure and the private man is one of the new books main themes.

Its evident in the way Obama experiences the sudden and persistent strangeness of the officehow my first name all but disappeared, how everyone stood whenever he entered a room, how unnatural his imprisonment in the White House and even on trips outside the gates felt. He has a recurring dream of walking along a busy street and suddenly realizing, with a rush of joy, that no one recognizes him and his security detail is gone. Presidents talk about the loneliness of the job. This book, crowded with characters and incidents, makes you feel itas when Obama has to leave a Situation Room meeting on whether to take military action in Libya, walks over to the residence, sits through a formal dinner, making small talk with a wounded veteran and all the while thinking through a war plan, then returns to the West Wing to announce it.

Read more:
Barack Obama's Memoir Is an Exercise in Tragic Realism - The Atlantic

On CBS News, Obama was asked what it says about America that 72 million people voted for Trump. Well, what it says is that we are still deeply divided, he replied. The power of that alternative worldview thats presented in the media that those voters consume, it carries a lot of weight.

Obama described how different things were as recently as 2008, when he ran for president.

I went into a small town, theres a small-town newspaper, and the owner or editor is a conservative guy with a crew cut, maybe, and a bow tie, and hes been a Republican for years, he told The Atlantic. He doesnt have a lot of patience for tax-and-spend liberals, but hell take a meeting with me, and hell write an editorial that says: Hes a liberal Chicago lawyer, but he seems like a decent enough guy, had some good ideas.

Many of those newspapers are now gone, Obama said, and a right-wing network like Fox is on in the barbershop or the VFW hall, which makes it difficult to break through.

Read this article:
Paul Fanlund: Barack Obama, Fox News and the state of the news media - Madison.com

Courtesy of Obama Foundation

The proposed Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park

Plans to create an Obama Presidential Center on Chicagos South Side were bogged down for years by lawsuits,debate over a community benefits agreement and tussles over its potential environmental impact on the historic Jackson Park. But trustees of the Obama Foundation seem confident they are almost ready to begin construction.

The foundation this week hired Lori Healey, president of Claycos Chicago business unit, to lead the effort. Before joining Clayco late last year, Healey led the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, the owner of McCormick Place and Navy Pier, was Mayor Richard M. Daleys chief of staff and served as principal of the John Buck Co.

We are nearing the end of the four separate federal reviews that must be completed before the City, Park District or the Foundation can begin construction on-site or the adjacent roadways, an Obama Foundation spokesperson told Bisnow in a written statement.

The Foundation remains eager to deliver on the economic benefits our project will produce for South Side residents, something we recognize will be sorely needed in the months and years ahead, the spokesperson added. Additionally, the Foundation remains committed to bringing the Obama Presidential Center to Jackson Park and we will issue a revised construction timeline once we understand the potential short-and-long term effects of COVID-19.

I am a huge fan and advocate of the Obama Foundations work, and while Im sad to see Lori leave Clayco, Im tremendously supportive of her move and will do everything we can to make her successful there, Clayco Executive Chairman Bob Clark said in a press release announcing the move.

David Reifman, former Department of Planning and Development commissioner for the city of Chicago, will take Healeys place at Clayco effective Dec. 1, Clark added. Reifman will also keep his current role as a principal and partner at CRG, Claycos real estate development and investment firm.

Preservation groups had filed a federal lawsuit over the foundations plans, claiming the proposed four-building complex would mar Jackson Park, which Frederick Law Olmsted helped design. The lawsuit was later dismissed, and a federal appeals court rejected the plaintiffs appeal on Aug. 21.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot then helped tamp down other resistance from neighborhood groups concerned over escalating housing costs in the surrounding area. She agreed to reserve 30% of the units developed on nearby vacant lots for very-low-income families. In addition, city officials pledged to spend about $4.5M on a variety of home improvement programs for local residents, as well as promote homeownership and refinance deals that will keep rents affordable.

The final piece of the puzzle was the memorandum of agreementnegotiated between federal agencies such as the Federal Highway Administration and the National Park Service, along with a collection of other state and city departments, that will govern how the project proceeds. It was signed earlier this week.

Link:
Obama Presidential Center Finally On The Verge Of Construction - Bisnow

EARLY IN HIS campaign for the presidency, Joe Biden rejected the notion that China was much of a worry. He argued that no leader in the world would trade the challenges facing China for their own. Chinas going to eat our lunch? Come on, man, Mr Biden scoffed. I mean, you know, theyre not bad folks, folks. But guess what? Theyre not competition for us. He was speaking in May 2019. Tempered by his contest with Donald Trump, who tried to rally support by highlighting the threat posed by China, Mr Biden now avoids such words. But as president, will his policy towards China be very different from Mr Trumps? He has yet to spell out his plans, but he will throw fewer wild punches.

Mr Bidens political rivals attacked his remarks in Iowa City, accusing him of being naive about China. Even some of his own advisers were troubled. At the time, Mr Biden was still bragging about the many hours he had spent with Xi Jinping when he served as vice-president under Barack Obama (he is well remembered in Beijing for dropping in at a neighbourhood eatery in 2011see picture). He was also being less blunt about Chinas hard authoritarian turn under Mr Xi. Since Mr Trump became president in 2017, relations between China and America have become much more hostile. But Mr Biden seemed stuck in the mindset of the Obama administration, which described its co-operation with China as unprecedented in scope. During the campaign Mr Biden had to be reprogrammed on China, says an adviser.

It seems to have worked. Mr Biden has since called Mr Xi a thug. He has criticised Mr Trump for praising Mr Xi (for example, during the early days of the covid-19 outbreak) and being indifferent towards, even tolerant of, Chinas human-rights abuses. In August his team accused China of genocide against ethnic Uyghurs in the far-western region of Xinjiang. Mr Biden finished his campaign sounding nothing like the candidate who started it or the administration he had once served. He was vowing to be tough on China.

China may be wondering whether all this is bombast. Before Mr Trumps presidency, there had been a long tradition of candidates berating China on the campaign trail, only to tone down their rhetoric and try to keep relations on an even keel once in office. Mr Bidens remarks give him wriggle-room to do the same. Despite referring to China as Americas biggest competitor, he has not called it the biggest threat. That, he says, is Russia (although the Biden administration is expected to keep the label of strategic competitor used under Mr Trump to describe China). Advisers to Mr Bidens team say there will be no reset in the relationship. But the president-elect does talk about co-operation with China on issues such as climate change and global health, which Mr Trump eschewed.

What can be discerned of Mr Bidens China policy looks like an amalgam of Mr Trumps and Mr Obamas: a Trumpian wariness of China combined with a preference for caution in handling strategic matters. He will be constrained by a Congress that has become far more hostile to China in recent years. A Senate that may remain in Republican control will restrict his freedom to appoint people who hawks fear will favour more engagement with China (see article). Public opinion may affect his policy, toonegative views of China have reached an historic high.

Of the many disputes between China and America that have grown more fraught under Mr Trump, trade is among the most bitterly contested. Mr Biden will inherit a smouldering trade war with China that was launched by Mr Trump in a vain attempt to reduce a soaring bilateral trade deficit. Unlike Mr Trump, Americas leader-in-waiting is no fan of using tariffs to achieve such goals. But he is unlikely to move swiftly to dismantle Mr Trumps tariffs on Chinese goodseven though they are, in effect, a tax that is mostly paid by American consumers. Some of Mr Bidens advisers hope that retaining them, at least for now, will give America leverage in negotiations with China over trade and other matters.

In the Obama era, Mr Biden supported efforts to forge a trade deal among 12 countries, including America, around the Pacifichoping it would eventually draw in China and bind it to Western trading norms. Mr Trump withdrew from that project. There is little chance that Mr Biden will resume interest in it. Winning approval from the Senate for multilateral trade pacts would be daunting, if not impossible.

Avoiding a hot war with China will also be a priority for Mr Biden. In recent months China has stepped up exercises in the Taiwan Strait and sent fighter jets on numerous sorties into Taiwanese airspace. Mr Biden will continue arms sales to Taiwan, which have picked up pace under Mr Trump. But he may scale back symbolic shows of support, such as high-level trips to Taiwan by cabinet members (in August Alex Azar, the health secretary, became the highest-ranking American to visit the island since America severed official ties with it in 1979). Some of Mr Bidens advisers see these as needlessly provocative.

But Mr Biden is likely to retain some of Mr Trumps toughest measures against China related to national security. He will persist with efforts to strangle Huawei, a Chinese telecoms giant that America regards as a security threat, by keeping Trump-era restrictions on doing business with the firm (see Briefing). Mr Biden will stress the need for America to keep ahead of China in technology. Decoupling in high-tech areas will remain the trend. This may involve government support for making semiconductors in America to avoid reliance on ones made in China.

Despite its disregard for multilateral forums, the Trump administration did try to build the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, a group of four China-sceptic countriesAmerica, Australia, India and Japaninto something sturdier. A military exercise involving all four members of the club took place this month in the Bay of Bengal. Mr Biden can be expected to continue efforts to beef up the Quad, as it is known (see Banyan). He will also maintain freedom of navigation patrols by the American armed forces in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait. Mr Obama was reticent about these, but they became routine under Mr Trump. Mr Biden will assure Chinas neighbours that America will be active in Asia; some allied diplomats in the region had grumbled that Mr Obamas pivot to Asia was too half-hearted.

Unlike Mr Trump, Mr Biden is expected to take a personal interest in the challenge posed by human-rights abuses in China, including repression in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. He may make more effort to contest Chinas influence in the UN, where Mr Xi has sought to insulate himself from criticism of his human-rights record. Mr Biden is likely to maintain sanctions on China imposed by the Trump administration, including those on officials and companies deemed complicit in violating human rights. Soon after taking over he may stage an international Summit for Democracy to make his values clear.

But the next president will avoid giving the kind of fiery ideological speeches favoured by the likes of Mike Pompeo, Mr Trumps secretary of state, and William Barr, his attorney-general, who have described the Chinese Communist Party as an existential threat to the free world. Such rhetoric does not mesh well with his belief that America can still co-operate with China in some areas.

Mr Biden will abandon aspects of Mr Trumps China policy that he views as harmful to openness and tolerance. He may remove visa-related impediments, introduced by the Trump administration, to study in America by people from China. Mr Biden believes that more foreigners should be recruited to American campuses, and that America gains from their presence. Investigations will continue into suspected espionage involving Chinese researchers, but Mr Bidens administration may tone down Trumpian rhetoric that instilled fears among ethnic Chinese living in America of a red scare fuelled, in part, by racial hostility towards them.

Mr Biden will certainly avoid Mr Trumps use of racially charged language to describe covid-19s links with China. He can also be expected to rejoin the World Health Organisation and try to resume the stationing in China of specialists from Americas Centres for Disease Control, who used to work with their Chinese counterparts on public health.

In the battle against climate change, Mr Biden may seek to persuade China to stop building carbon-belching projects such as coal-fired power plants in other countries. Such efforts will be made easier by Americas rejoining, under Mr Biden, of the Paris agreement on climate change. In September Mr Xi announced a goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2060. Some climate experts say Mr Biden should announce an even more ambitious climate target, and encourage a race with China to develop a green economy. That would mesh well with what Mr Bidens advisers believe should be a pillar of his China strategystrengthening America itself, including by spending more government money on renewable energy. But the Senate, if it remains in Republican control, could frustrate such ambitions.

It is not only Republicans who will limit Mr Bidens room for manoeuvre on China. Much of the machinery of governmentfrom the Commerce Department to intelligence agencieshas been recalibrated in response to Chinas growing challenge, with more staff and energy focused on the country and its transgressions than ever before. New laws, sanctions and other policies specifically targeting China are in place. This helps to keep China at the forefront of political debate and makes it more difficult for leaders to turn a blind eye to the Communist Partys bad behaviour. Its very different from the past when a new president came in and could very quickly if they wanted make significant changes, says Bonnie Glaser of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a think-tank.

In keeping with the new mood, Mr Biden is expected to send early signals that he intends to stand firm against China. Advisers suggest that he wait longer than usual to take a congratulatory call from Mr Xi, and not fall for any language Mr Xi may use to suggest a new framework for the relationship. Initially, at least, Mr Biden will focus on domestic issues like covid-19 and the economy, as well as on strengthening ties with allies. He will want their support when he turns his attention China-wards.

Mr Xi will surely look for a chance to test Mr Bidens mettle. In the build-up to a crucial Communist Party gathering in 2022, he will not wish to appear weak. How Mr Biden responds to any provocation will depend, in part, on the advice he receives from his senior officials. Some of those whom he is expected to pick as his national-security advisers are veterans of the Obama administration who shied away from confrontation with China. Others believe in more muscular responses to its increasingly assertive behaviour, including a clearer commitment by America to defend Taiwan against any Chinese attack. As vice-president Mr Biden displayed caution about the use of American force. In his dealings with China, the risk of a dysfunctional relationship turning into a violent one will loom large in his calculations.

Dig deeper:Read our latest coverage of the presidential transition, and then sign up for Checks and Balance, our weekly newsletter and podcast on American politics.

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline "To a different tune"

More:
Joe Bidens China policy will be a mix of Trumps and Obamas - The Economist

WASHINGTON Voters have decided that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. should guide the country through the next four years. But on issues of war, the environment, criminal justice, trade, the economy and more, President Trump and top administration officials are doing what they can to make changing direction more difficult.

Mr. Trump has spent the last two weeks hunkered down in the White House, raging about a stolen election and refusing to accept the reality of his loss. But in other ways he is acting as if he knows he will be departing soon, and showing none of the deference that presidents traditionally give their successors in their final days in office.

During the past four years Mr. Trump has not spent much time thinking about policy, but he has shown a penchant for striking back at his adversaries. And with his encouragement, top officials are racing against the clock to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, secure oil drilling leases in Alaska, punish China, carry out executions and thwart any plans Mr. Biden might have to reestablish the Iran nuclear deal.

In some cases, like the executions and the oil leases, Mr. Trumps government plans to act just days or even hours before Mr. Biden is inaugurated on Jan. 20.

At a wide range of departments and agencies, Mr. Trumps political appointees are going to extraordinary lengths to try to prevent Mr. Biden from rolling back the presidents legacy. They are filling vacancies on scientific panels, pushing to complete rules that weaken environmental standards, nominating judges and rushing their confirmations through the Senate, and trying to eliminate health care regulations that have been in place for years.

In the latest instance, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin declined to extend key emergency lending programs that the Federal Reserve had been using to help keep credit flowing to businesses, state and local governments and other parts of the financial system. He also moved to claw back much of the money that supports them, hindering Mr. Bidens ability to use the central banks vast powers to cushion the economic fallout from the virus.

Terry Sullivan, a professor of political science and the executive director of the White House Transition Project, a nonpartisan group which has studied presidential transitions for decades, said Mr. Trump was not behaving like past presidents who cared about how their final days in office shaped their legacy.

They are upping tension in Iran, which could lead to a confrontation. The economy is tanking and they are not doing anything about unemployment benefits, he said.

It is one final norm shattered by Mr. Trump and a stark contrast to the last Republican president who handed over power to a Democrat.

Former president George W. Bush consciously left it to his successor, Barack Obama, to decide how to rescue the auto industry and whether to approve Afghan troop increases. And when Congress demanded negotiations over the bank bailouts, Mr. Bush stepped aside and let Mr. Obama cut a deal with lawmakers even before he was inaugurated.

Aides to Mr. Bush said the outgoing president wanted to leave Mr. Obama with a range of policy options as he began his presidency, a mind-set clearly reflected in a 2008 email about negotiations over the status of American forces in Iraq from Joshua Bolten, Mr. Bushs chief of staff at the time, to John D. Podesta, who ran Mr. Obamas transition, just a week after the election.

We believe we have negotiated an agreement that provides President-Elect Obama the authorities and protections he needs to exercise the full prerogatives as commander in chief, Mr. Bolten wrote to Mr. Podesta on November 11, 2008, in an email later made public by WikiLeaks. We would like to offer, at your earliest convenience, a full briefing to you and your staff.

That has not been Mr. Trumps approach.

The president has continued to deny Mr. Biden briefings and access to agency officials delays that the president-elect has said threatened to undermine the countrys response to the pandemic. And far from seeking to help Mr. Bidens team, Mr. Trump has spent more than two weeks actively seeking to undermine the legitimacy of his victory.

Mr. Biden and his top aides have not publicly criticized the presidents policy actions at home or abroad, abiding by the tradition that there is only one president at a time. But the president-elect has vowed to move quickly to undo many of Mr. Trumps domestic and foreign policies.

That will most likely start with a blitz of executive actions in his first days in office, as well as an aggressive legislative agenda during his first year.

Some of Mr. Trumps advisers make no attempt to hide the fact that their actions are aimed at deliberately hamstringing Mr. Bidens policy options even before he begins.

One administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of not being authorized to talk publicly, said that in the coming days there would be more announcements made related in particular to China, with whom Trump advisers believe that Mr. Biden would try to improve relations.

Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, defended the administrations actions, saying the president was elected because voters were tired of the same old, business-as-usual politicians who always pledged to change Washington but never did. Mr. Trump, he said, had rolled back regulations and brought accountability to agencies and remains focused on that important work.

Some previous transitions have also been rancorous. Incoming Bush administration officials accused the exiting Clinton White House of minor mischief, last-minute pardons to friends and delays because of the disputed 2000 election.

Mr. Trump has long alleged that after his election, he faced a stealth effort to undermine his transition because of the investigations that were underway into his campaigns possible connections to Russia. And there were documented instances of Obama officials making last-ditch efforts to put roadblocks in the way of what they expected would be Mr. Trumps policy reversals on immigration and other issues.

Still, in his inauguration speech, Mr. Trump said Mr. Obama and his wife had been magnificent in carrying out an orderly transition and thanked them for their gracious aid throughout the period.

And rarely in modern times have a president and his allies been as deliberate in their desire to hobble the incoming administration as Mr. Trump has been toward Mr. Biden.

Its not consistent with anything we experienced, said Denis McDonough, who served as Mr. Obamas chief of staff and was part of Mr. Obamas team during the transition from Mr. Bushs administration. He said Mr. Trumps actions in the final days of his administration were foreshadowed by his determination to sever agreements Mr. Obama had reached on climate change and Irans nuclear program something presidents rarely do.

The Presidential Transition

Nov. 21, 2020, 2:38 p.m. ET

Its a breach of that norm, Mr. McDonough said.

Some of Mr. Trumps actions are all but permanent, like the nomination of judges with lifetime appointments or the naming of his supporters to government panels with terms that stretch beyond Mr. Bidens likely time in office. Once done, there is little that the new president can do to reverse them.

But they are not the only nominees administration officials are trying to rush through.

Among the others are two nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors who would serve until 2024 and 2030 respectively, a trio of possible members to the Federal Election Commission to serve six-year terms, as well as nominees to the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who, if confirmed, would prevent Mr. Biden from installing majorities on those bodies until well into 2021.

Other actions may be possible to reverse, but are designed to exact a political price for doing so.

Since the election, Mr. Trump has ordered the withdrawal of thousands of troops from Afghanistan, where Mr. Trump aims to halve an already pared-down force of 4,500 by the time he leaves office, defying the advice of some top generals.

Mr. Bidens vision for American troop deployments is not radically different: He has said that he supports only small numbers of combat forces, mainly tasked with fighting terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. But Mr. Trumps last-minute withdrawals could force Mr. Biden into an unwanted confrontation with Democrats in Congress if he decides he needs to return to the modest, pre-election status quo.

Analysts say that Mr. Trumps withdrawal of troops also deprives the United States of any leverage in the ongoing peace process in Afghanistan between the Taliban and the Afghan government, potentially allowing the Taliban to make important military gains.

Trump officials are also working to impose new sanctions on Iran that may be difficult for Mr. Biden to reverse, out of a fear of opening himself up to charges that he is soft on one of the countrys most dangerous adversaries.

The sanctions could also undermine any move by Mr. Biden to return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, a step that would require providing Iran with economic breathing room after years of Mr. Trumps constrictions.

I think youre going to see a pretty rapid clip of new actions before January 20, said Mark Dubowitz, the chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who often consults with the Trump administration on Iran.

In an Oval Office meeting last week, Mr. Trump also asked his senior advisers what military options were available to him in response to Irans stockpiling of nuclear material, although he was dissuaded from pursuing the idea. Any military action would undermine attempts by Mr. Biden to reset American policy.

Similarly, Trump officials continue to take punitive actions against China that are likely to further strain the tense relationship with Beijing that Mr. Biden will inherit. Last week, Mr. Trump issued an executive order barring Americans from investing in Chinese companies with ties to Chinas military. Administration officials say more steps are in the works.

Mr. Mnuchins shutdown of emergency lending programs this week could also have long-lasting implications for Mr. Biden as the new president struggles to contain the economic fallout of the pandemic. The pandemic-era programs are run by the Fed but use Treasury money to insure against losses.

Mr. Mnuchin defended his decision on Friday, insisting that he was following the intent of Congress in calling for the Fed to return unused money to the Treasury. But it will be Mr. Biden who will be left to deal with the consequences. And restoring the programs would require new negotiations with a Congress that is already deadlocked over Covid relief.

In the summer of 2008, officials in Mr. Bushs White House sent a memo to agency officials warning them to wrap up new regulations and not to try to rush new ones in right before the next president. Mr. Trump is doing the opposite.

The Environmental Protection Agency is rushing to try to complete work on a new rule that will change the way the federal government counts costs and benefits, an adjustment that could make it harder for Mr. Biden to expand certain air or water pollution regulations.

At Health and Human Services, the agency moved just after Election Day to adopt a rule that would automatically suspend thousands of agency regulations if they are not individually confirmed to be still needed and having appropriate impacts. The agency itself called the plan radical realizing it would tie the hands of the next administration.

Brian Harrison, the agencys chief of staff, called it the boldest and most significant regulatory reform effort ever undertaken by H.H.S.

Michael Crowley, Nicholas Fandos, Maggie Haberman and Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting.

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Trump Using Last Days to Lock in Policies and Make Bidens Task More Difficult - The New York Times