An hour with David Broder

from the dole institute of politics at the university of kansas hey pierre presents an hour with david broder i'm kate mcintyre david broder is one of the most highly regarded journalist writing about politics today his syndicated column appears twice a week is more than three hundred newspapers including the lawrence journal world in nineteen seventy three he won the pulitzer prize for distinguished commentary in nineteen ninety seven he received the william allen white foundation award for distinguished achievement in journalism he spoke out or eighteenth two thousand ten as the monthly journalism and politics lecturer moderated by bill lacy director of the dole institute audio engineering for this event was provided by lawrence bush and now here are david broder and only see let's go back to january of last year and down the president had just up inaugurated of the democrats had retaken control of both houses of the congress in oh six and i really look like the

democratic party would be governing for possibly an extended period of time what happened what your assessment of what happened what it was a good question because i found myself particularly during this campaign period when i re visit him a number of the states that i was in during the two thousand eight presidential campaign here this fall and it's remarkable to see how different the atmosphere is now from what it was just two years ago when barack obama was on his way to a very big victory otto what happened i had an interesting conversation couple weeks ago with a man who had worked in the clinton white house

who suggested that there were two different agendas that up occurred simultaneously in washington one was the agenda that obama carefully constructed during his two thousand eight campaign that agenda as you will remember began with the war in iraq obama was one of the first to come out against continuing that war and also the war in afghanistan which he said that was much more important for the country's future for our future there our second he said we've got this phenomenon which the scientists call global warming and it's real and we have to do something

about thirty he said all we have a crisis in our healthcare system he wasn't the first to discover that that has been commented on why many other and both parties are obama said we're going to take a serious run at war that he said were you know as a result of some of the policies of my republican predecessor as a kind of a challenge to our constitutional order and civil liberties which we need to address that so that we don't sacrifice essential freedoms in the cause of fighting the taliban and other adverse forces and finally he said we've begun to see that things have gone seriously wrong on wall

street so we have to figure out all that discipline and manage wall street he's set up to do all of those things at once in the first year of his administration using the large majorities in the congress and we enter into the dna is brought to their jobs in the executive branch clinton white house raids suppose he had known when he started running for president in two thousand at that we're about to fall off the edge of the planet in terms of the economy the worst recession that any of us

had seen since the nineteen thirties if he had known what you still have to do all of those other things during the first two years and at least for this democrat looking at it from close in what the outside the answer is clearly no he would have said much as i think those things that i talk about are still important we've got a crisis on our hands and it's called jobs and the failure of the american economy i'm going to focus like a laser on that age having done so my friend said the picture could they might be very different we don't know if you can't go back and replay that different scenario but it's certainly conceivable that it would've been

a very different picture it has girl trouble following question david let's assume for a second that the president had done that and it is very easy for us all to play monday morning quarterback but i still won i ask you this question can lessen the president focused on the economy let's say instead of passing car or asking for the stimulus to the past as it was he's he asked for like an eight hundred billion dollar on employment tax credit and let's say on healthcare there there were two or three issues that all pollsters have told us for years on health care like portability and like pre existing conditions that americans act salute we support reform on healthcare suppose on healthcare he proposed a more modest incremental approach and then try to box republicans in what would things have turned out differently i don't know the answer to that and it's a puzzle to me because i

recall thinking in the winter of two thousand and nine that it was very odd experience what the republican reaction was in the house and senate to the first obama stimulus program this was a time when literally every morning we were waking up to the most horrendous news about layoffs about shutdowns about the auto industry going belly up and i knew from talking with republican members of the house and senate that they were hearing the same thing at all from their constituents that the democrats were and people were scared as hell they did

not know what was happening in our country and they looked to watch and for answers the answer that the obama administration came up with was that stimulus program i was very surprised at the time that there were so few republicans who were prepared to support anything like that now as you remember there were three senators and only three one of the island specter later switch switched parties and izzy role members of the house of representatives that sought because when you have a genuine economic crisis you would think that it would affect

more than the members of one party and a new well we'll talk about this when you write this have you yet and you've been traveling around you know to mention to me that you had gone back to ohio and pennsylvania states where you were during the ole campaign in wang's i admire about you so much as if you're still so active and so involved in all this but how do you think the midterm elections are going to come out other republicans and very badly for the democrats i don't think that the polls are wrong i don't think that were misreading the situation on in a house of representatives there are clearly and love seats that have moved into real battleground status for the republicans to pick up the thirty nine seats that they would need to win a

majority in the house they could have done the same thing in the senate but as it turned out and you always learn from your mistakes one of the first states that i went to last summer was state of delaware convenient easy we reached him in washington as it happen yeah i had a son who was growing in a we got up there so i want to see if he could actually survive that experience which he did harm so i went to delaware and rode around with mike castle the two term governor and ten term member for miles senators and his very likable but seemingly overmatched

democratic opponent the county executive in newcastle county most populous county in the state and at some point when we were riding around together i said to mr cassel do i need to write something about this primary election of yours with this woman who's ran for the senate before up here and his answer was literally i hope you don't because i'm not trying to draw any attention taylor i don't think she's the problem for me but i'm not interested in getting her more publicity two weeks later a lot of money a riot in delaware and the tea party arrived in delaware and as you know ms mcdonnell now is the republican

nominee for the senate in delaware and they have probably blow that for the senate because they cannot win that election with her as the republican nominee and it's mindboggling or republicans in washington it's mind boggling for the party leaders in delaware and it's one of the great ironies of this election that in effect the republican party or the tea party has given away what could turn out to be the crucial senate seat until you want as you said you think republicans are going to retake the house the water to see shore of the senate curious how big do you think the gop house women will be would be something i want to take control and be

something camden it now before oars people like michael barone who started suggest that it could be upwards of seventy five even a hundred seats no i don't think it's that big and i think the chances are that the margins between democrats and republicans will be relatively small in both the house and the senate wants were all finished with it do you think the impact of that going to be for the present i mean what what is his likely harm direction that he would go with republican control of the house what's the most intriguing question that we don't have an answer to in one have an answer until we he has to confront the reality is what i think we know about iraq obama is historically a

very practical down the earth let's do this is kind of legislator that's when he was in the illinois legislature that's what he started out to be in the united states senate i don't think it will be particularly difficult for him as an individual to accommodate himself to a world in which john barrett has much more power than mitch mcconnell has much more he was not very forthcoming in the first two years in fact mcconnell as settlers several of us reporters that until about a month before they went out for a late november election period he had not had a one on one

session with the president of the united states which is kind of mind boggling to me but obviously in the new world obama will be much more attentive to them and what i think i don't think he has our time accepting that there will be real negotiations now over almost every issue becomes all he does not want to wind up spending the next two years fighting the same kind of rear guard battles that he's spent the last two years by he'd like to get some things done while he's still president of the united states and understands it that would be very much to his political advantage to do that but to do that he's going to have to

negotiate seriously in a way that is not i had to do to this time now all the polls that consistently show republicans pick up a lot of seats in the house and a number of seats in the senate also show that that voters are pretty much dislike both the democratic and republican party fact most polls actually write the republican party lower than the democratic party john banner professes that the republicans have learned from their mistakes of the first eight years of this of this century you buy that is banker up to the task well we'll find out whether he's up to the task or not i mean this is not going to be an easy a party to manage in the house of representatives because so many of them were been elected probably on the basis of a rather

extreme promises to their constituents so these bananas or cut out for him but john baker is a legislator he was the chairman of the education committee when george w bush the president turned to him and said please help me pass the no child left behind act and he did that he negotiated it with george miller the ranking democrat a liberal democrat on that committee and had no difficulty coming to terms with miller they started out a long way apart but they ended up finding ways to write a bill and i think his instinct is to write bills not to simply fight over barren brown what can americans do to change the politics as

usual mentality in washington i wish i knew it i don't know the end of that we've had harry's succession of presidents why think genuinely believed in the hope that they would find a way to make washington once again a politically frank channel capital not a dysfunctional capital i think that was true of obama it was true george w bush offered his experience in in texas and it was certainly a case when his father and bill clinton were and took their turns out that there was a time actually when it appeared that newt gingrich and bill clinton all are unlikely

people hadn't fallen a way of dealing with each other and that was one we got an agreement that yielded with real briefly the budget surpluses and agreements on welfare reform they were prepared from what both of them have said to go right ahead and strike a similar deal on social security at a time when it would have been possible to do that because we had fiscal surpluses at that time and then monica and everything went to hell or so you think can i don't want to worry about but i gather you think that having closer margins in both houses of congress probably is gonna lead to a government that actually

tries to get something done it can't be worse at my advanced age i would like to believe that there is a realistic possibility that it might actually get better but that's not a guarantee and there are forces and bolts science mentioned just one now we are giving an extraordinary amount of leverage to interest groups both left and right they have no interest in comedies no state in the governing process to care only about what happens when they don't have their membership to their industry to their salvation agenda and now thanks to the supreme court have more

financial leverage in our politics than ever before and they have no interest at all in with helping workout accommodations and was so there's certainly no guarantee but i also think that politicians make a difference and the politicians were out on the stump this week and next we are getting an earful from the voters about how fed up those voters are with the spectacle of dysfunctional government and i'm hoping hoping that will have some impact on them when they come back to washington you have remember up one year career david when civility and respect on in the political arena were as low as they are today did

you always want to create a kind of a golden age it's sentimental just to be an old fool right now i don't think it's been this back and i will tell you this for the members of the congress and i think that's the heart of the problem is that congress this has become a really distasteful job they're frustrated they're angry with each other and they're fed up with the system and i have to say i think this is a leadership problem that congress typically the house of representatives

depends on its elected leaders to set the tall and when they succumb to the meanness i hope any partisanship then there's very are for individual donors to be eight have anything other than that same way obviously there's a lot of talk about the struggle that american newspapers are having today another washington post which i enjoyed reading for twenty years i was in washington dc and this horribly out here has been fighting in the new york times has been fighting about a wider regional on smaller newspapers have been even harder hit when you think the prospects are for the newspaper industry and down but does it need to be doing differently wall hello oh no the vue

at the washington post from our management which is i think as conscientious then serious about journalism as annie management and the business is that we're going through a transition not a death spiral of transition and that the question of our future depends on whether we can find an economic model that sustains quality journalism in the internet age it's very clear that the mass audience has migrated and they're not coming back they are now reading newspapers on the web and that is the future of our business it's where our editors have their focus and it's where most others have their their

focus the question is whether we can find an economic model oh that sustains journalist i mentioned earlier when i was talking with the students erica dole institute of the notable achievement that two of our women reporters had in exposing the abuse of veterans at walter reed army hospital was a great journalistic achievement it was five months of work for two highly paid professional women reporters you can only do that or you know a very prosperous

news organization that's prepared to make that kind of banter wasn't worth it absolutely because otherwise those veterans would still be living in phil and with inadequate medical attention but somebody had to make a decision let's keep those recorders going back until they can back to vote in of secrecy that what journalism at its highest is all of all but you only get that kind of better when the finances of the news organization that sustain it and what we dont know none of this is whether you the audience a citizen this is dated

if we don't we're in really big trouble because i don't know there's some other place where that kind of journalist will be that the postman a really substantial effort in that case what was the payback in terms of number of articles that ever produced well there were several all particles that essentially it wasn't what the exit was a that was so powerful the defense secretary of the army and that the man running walter reed hospital and clean house he took care of the problem once he was aware of that but he was aware the only because that private organization was only maybe after the reported that to my last question sophomore ethan i know we have quite a few students here and

quite used in a way and the backpack there but my guess is a bunch of our journalism students and i know that there are serious about their career isn't in where journalism is going and i'm kind of curious based on your long and very successful career advice you would give to the students here were there in journalism or in other fields that will help them be successful well the good news is that the quality of people who want to come into journalism has never been higher we're are not suffering from a talent drain our talent shortage and that's the most important and positive thing that i can tell you about where we are in journalism these days i think what the people were teaching journalism in

university of maryland where i've been teaching and at other universities will tell you is that versatility has now become the absolute imperative you don't just write news articles for the newspaper you also do all the other forms a journalism that bring information to people and was in around within it and the internet and and feel and tape and all the other things and versatility is now require which means that that people young people coming into our business have to have a much higher level of skills and my generation did i was i mentioned the students earlier i was not very far removed from the time when anybody who wanted

to work on a newspaper could get a job simply by showing up on a day when somebody else that showed up so drunk they couldn't cover rehab and much more complicated and then and it certainly not that way any longer so the skills are much higher now you're listening to pulitzer prize winning journalist david broder speaking with bill lacy of the dole institute of politics this is k pr prisons on kansas public radio this is allison went from iowa kansas and i wanted to just mention the fact that this morning's associated press at a long story saying this is the most productive congress that we've had for many many many years and won almost resented carcasses that we've had which you just take it from there you can make the case

that the large bills that the bypass protective that the house of representatives passed represent a kind of a breakthrough for congress in historic terms but if you look at what the country of compounds and then ask his cell how much of that has been dealt with why washington i don't think the answer comes out neil is a rube though question the back this morning mike barnicle said that this country is ready yet for third party it would be led by michael bloomberg i would appreciate our guest comments possible i mean the word as a man and his staff kevin cue is three years at least has been actively promoting the idea of a third party candidacy by mayor bloomberg

for president and each time that he's come up to the point we've actually have to do something of that sort of bloomberg has backed off most recently because he did not want to interfere with the possible action of our first african american president whether he would back off in the future i don't know him nearly well enough to gauge but i think that the level of frustration in this country with the way in which politics is being performed in both parties certainly raises the possibility that we will have a significant third party candidacy coming out of one of these election cycles

i don't think that's at all out of the out of that as to whether it's the mayor of new york where somebody else is just got a lot smarter than that i am to be able to judge that they do have a question right here on the front row i have voted in every senate election since nineteen fifty two from doctor to the president and the contractor november second how can we in this country educate our young people so that they will see it's such a great privilege to vote they will get an armed and and you know through their dna so that you can at least ten a conversation with someone and they say i don't their prime and i don't pay attention to those things well as share your frustration at the low rhetoric that seems to be where they serve in our politics now how to

improve it in a way i know the only way i know is to reward those politicians who are prepared to talk seriously about issues and there are such politicians in wal mart they don't necessarily get the most attention or the most publicity but they're there and i think part of the responsibility of journalism not just in washington but around the country is too so those politicians finally joins us politicians here in kansas and you want to be rewarding them for having serious conversations with you

about public issues and you ought to let those who demagogues key issues notes that you can see through them and don't value what they are doing you have other questions i mean like the question about the national debt is mike and shown that the national debt in spatial high and the way that we have these special investments their congressman or their wish to take other constituents who will it is the us as individuals or killed sonic we will have a very interesting and important kyle long about the national debt starting the first week in december a month after the election and the commission that the president has appointed a new it's staffed by

members of both parties report back on its recommendations for how to deal with that that there's no more serious challenge hear it all then that that that we face and nothing that's going to test our political system more rapidly than the need to get on top of that is you so what what the politicians say watch what they do and let them know as you said that you are serious about expecting action on that issue you so on at least going in the center because they've really optimistic that a speaker very few speaker that majority leader reid or schumer and the president might actually do something such as substantive on that issue all actions have consequences and

the fact that this country is about to give a real shake up to the political class in washington is i think by and large a hopeful sign certainly there was nothing much to be gained from just continuing to spend our wills as we've done so often the last two years i am not a wildly optimistic but i think pepper uk obama as an individual is prepared to help make washington once again a place that deals with real problems not just a lot of symbolism and we have time for one or two more questions do that and this absolute person but that he quotes from that maybe us diplomats the boundaries of an electoral district

is that something like forty four states or the ruling party the size of a penny at ease than a hope of ever be forming that that process has any hope of re forming the process by which congressional lines are drawn the redistricting process well i wish there were the supreme court has not shown any inclination so far to deal with political gerrymandering with a drawing the lines to give a great advantage to one party or the other it's a constitutional problem and we have not come up with a constitutional solution for this problem and i'm not smart enough to tell you what

that problem what that solution would be there are minor efforts in various states to change the way in which congressional district and legislative districts i've drawn but except for california which is your will take the power power of drawing lines out of the hands of its legislature and create a different more politically neutral system for doing that none of those is a very large scale experiment is yet so on can be wildly optimistic about that were on the verge of a breakthrough on that front at times in our history when we have a stance on congress' power one party or the other has made sacrifices to break the

standstill and if we in the next term we get closer to fifty fifty in the parties which party do you think will make the sacrifice if they do have too it comes down to conversations and one of the things that's happened in washington is that so many of the elected officials on both sides so just stop talking with each other that there's very little of that kind of healthy dialogue again i'm looking at pictures of jerry ford of bob dole that they were constantly having with their colleagues in both parties we need to get back in the habit of talking to each other rather than yelling at each other and there's so much of the yelling now to play on the

television in the way and the politicians are no better than a lot of the take shots at each other that that's not a way to deal with the issues you have to be willing to talk with each other as those men understood another question back in the back yes out what's the blinds in one person one vote if we at airwaves and everything else is being inundated unknown money that's buying off the elections fortunately votes still count hand we will see elections again a week from tuesday which are decided by fifteen twenty fifty hundred votes one way or the other and we will be

reminded all of us about the hour but as an individual voter we possessed which is still greater than that of the wealthiest and the most powerful individual playing the game goes out and we will help once again decided by a handful of votes in the senate they decided by an impulse and i haven't mentioned that it should be for which are there are thirty seven governors going to be collected in ten days and those governors will help set the pattern not just for governing their states but for drawing the lines

and legislatures and author representatives so don't overlook the importance of elections governor you are talking about the importance of talking to one another and in ford's and doles date they want come home every weekend and i've often felt that when that you come home every weekend for a very long week and that doesn't contribute to getting to know one another and discussing important issues oh i agree with you that that weakens can be very important dire a long time not just between the elected officials and their constituents but among elected officials themselves and one of the things that's been sacrificed is that so much of the weekend time now is spent

fund raising in a highly partisan environment that they don't talk to each other as they used to ok i think we're going to take one more question right here there is called famous attitude says that you're entitled to your opinion about your facts today read in the new york times that the out the one the republicans are running for running for senators are nineteen of them do not believe in global warming or in any of the science goes into this we have won when people are entitled to their facts what do you do about governing oh i think we have to hope that scientific literacy comes along with it political literacy we have made a price in this country in my

view for our an ability to come to grips with the apparent changes in art climate and in the causes of those those changes i don't think you can fault the president for trying to move that forward along with all the other issues that he put on the table that one clearly did not get adequate attention and a quick leverage in the congress that one last question tonight let me ask you this how will walk the roles career in the united states senate be remembered for his legacy be well he has a very large legacy both living legacy i am i think the longer term legacy in terms of the living legacy there is no member

who has served in the last twenty five years who has a larger fan club and half half influence in both parties and then bob dole because he made it is this is to reach out not just other republicans but the democrats and as long as there are democrats sharing today which are still are who served with though they think of him as a model of what a senator ought to be for the longer term there are i don't know how many but a relative handful of senators who said a model

for behavior in their body that become part of the lore of that body and bob dole it is one of those rare senators he became soul much an embodiment of not just what republicans did and thought and stood for what the senate itself i think over this institution here we'll have a very very large responsibility to help young people who did not live through

the dole is in the senate understand what it was that he represents to the country and he represents a great deal very a while for us to recapture and cherished if we're going to make this democracy work you've just heard journalist david broder speaking with bill lacy director of the door the institute of politics at the university of kansas david broder is a pulitzer prize winning columnist with the washington post his syndicated editorial the pier twice a week in more than three hundred newspaper hers roeder spoke at the dole institute october eighteenth twenty ten as the monthly journalism and politics lecturer which was endowed by more about betty muncie the retired

owner of the dodge city daily globe audio engineering for this event was provided by lawrence boyce of the dole institute i'm kate mcintyre k pr presents is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas kansas public radio can only create locally produced programs like at our present with the financial support of katie our listener members just like you if you've enjoyed listening to keep your prisons consider making a pledge to support this program we've just ended paul fanfare twenty ten arafa membership drive but you can still play it securely and conveniently online our website is k pr that kay you got edu and from all of us at kansas public radio thanks for your support it's

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