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Even when the President-elect shakes off Donald Trump's sulking shadow next year, he will face a harrowing political environment. By his January inauguration, the current explosion in Covid-19 infections will have left a trail of death and sickness in a nation worn down by nearly a year of pandemic-induced deprivations. And unless Democrats win two Georgia run-off elections, Biden will face a Republican-majority Senate led by Sen. Mitch McConnell, who is as immovable as the marble blocks of Washington's memorials.Democrats have been shocked to see their majority shrink in the House of Representatives, meaning Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not always get her way. Progressive dreams that Biden would enjoy a Franklin Roosevelt-style first 100 days of radical social legislation are dead. Remember talk of packing the Supreme Court, the Green New Deal and new state-run health care? Forget that. The delicate new balance on Capitol Hill means the next two years will likely unfold as a war of attrition, with both parties maneuvering ahead of mid-term congressional elections that are usually cruel to first-term presidents.But it is not all bleak for Biden. Though he will take office during America's darkest hour for decades, the prospect of several Covid-19 vaccines could begin to restore light to American life by mid-2021. A bright summer and an economic rebound may lend his presidency significant momentum. And Washington's divides which mirror a nation at war with itself have offered clarity: Biden won the Democratic nomination and the White House because he is not a radical and is driven by instincts to unify rather than divide. A president who can bridge differences and broker modest bipartisan wins for instance in helping workers who lost jobs in the pandemic might win widespread approval.

The last four presidencies pulsated with impeachments, partisan fury, terror attacks, wars, economic crises, whiplash change and historic firsts. Long buried passions and prejudices are burning thanks to Trump's inflammatory term. Even before the pandemic, America was exhausted by an incessant fight between factions with vastly different visions of the country it should be.

A quiet presidency that does little more than restore a semblance of normality isn't what Biden has in mind. But a time-out from history sounds pretty good right now.

'A complete ass'

At last some gossip

Vladimir Putin: White House reporters used to take delight in decoding the body language when Obama met the Russian leader. His book notes similarities between the former KGB man and political barons in his adopted city of Chicago. Putin was "like a ward boss, except with nukes and a UN Security Council veto," Obama writes. For people like him: "life was a zero-sum game; you might do business with those outside your tribe, but in the end, you couldn't trust them."

Benjamin Netanyahu: Obama had a difficult relationship with the Israeli Prime Minister who has found Trump much more to his liking. "Netanyahu could be charming, or at least solicitous," Obama writes. "But his vision of himself as the chief defender of the Jewish people against calamity allowed him to justify almost anything that would keep him in power."

Hu Jintao: The former President found China's ex-leader tough going. Obama complains one encounter was a "sleepy affair" and that his attempts to lighten the mood during their interminable meetings usually drew a "blank stare." Obama was far more impressed with China's then-Premier Wen Jiabao.

Angela Merkel: Obama gazed into the German Chancellor's eyes, which he recalled as "big and bright blue" and "could be touched by turns with frustration, amusement, or hints of sorrow." He found Merkel analytical and confirmed reports she was initially skeptical of his oratory. "I took no offense, figuring that as a German leader, an aversion to possible demagoguery was probably a healthy thing."

Nicolas Sarkozy: The former French leader, described as "a figure out of a Toulouse-Lautrec painting," couldn't have been more different from his German counterpart, Obama writes. Sarkozy was "all emotional outbursts and overblown rhetoric," and though often exasperating, Obama also found him amusing and appreciated his "boldness, charm and manic energy." The book praises both Sarkozy and Merkel for their support of American values.

David Cameron: Obama got on well with the Eton-educated former British Prime Minister, whom he described as having an impressive command of issues, despite disapproving of Cameron's Tory philosophy of deficit reduction and budget cuts. The privileged PM had "the breezy confidence of someone who'd never been pressed too hard by life," he notes.

'We're going to have an orderly transfer from this administration to the next one'

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Obama's insights on Merkel, Putin and other leaders in his new book - CNN

Former President Barack Obama at a campaign rally in Miami for then Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden the day before Election Day. In his new memoir, A Promised Land, Obama focuses on his first term in the White House. Lynne Sladky/AP hide caption

Former President Barack Obama at a campaign rally in Miami for then Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden the day before Election Day. In his new memoir, A Promised Land, Obama focuses on his first term in the White House.

Former President Barack Obama talks with NPR's Michel Martin about his time in office, President Trump's pandemic response, the 2020 election and what he thinks President-elect Joe Biden says about the United States right now.

In Obama's new memoir, A Promised Land, he writes about his first term in the White House.

Read NPR's full interview with Obama here.

In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

This episode was produced by Connor Donevan, Lee Hale and Brianna Scott. It was edited by Sami Yenigun with help from Wynne Davis. Our executive producer is Cara Tallo.

See the rest here:
Former President Obama Talks About What Joe Biden's Win Means For The US : Consider This from NPR - NPR

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.

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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