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There's No Question Almost Press Secretaries Talk About The Sense Of Serving Two Masters. On The One Hand You Want To Protect The President's Interests, And You Represent His Interests To The Press. And The Press Is A Proxy For The American People.

-Dee Dee Myers

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There's No Question Almost

Dee Dee Myers

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There's No Question Almost Press Secretaries Talk About The Sense Of Serving Two Masters. On The One Hand You Want To Protect The President's Interests, And You Represent His Interests To The Press. And The Press Is A Proxy For The American People.

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Barack Obama Is The Most Famous Living Person In The History Of The World.

It Isn't Fate But Fecklessness That Has Shoved Sarah Palin To The Sidelines Of National Politics. The Real Tragedy Is That She's Taken A Lot Of Other Serious Republican Women With Her.

Obama Seemed Poised To Realign American Politics After His Stunning 2008 Victory. But The Economy Remains Worse Than Even The Administration's Worst-case Scenarios, And The Long Legislative Battles Over Health Care Reform, Financial Services Reform And The National Debt And Deficit Have Taken Their Toll. Obama No Longer Looks Invincible.

Worst Case Scenario

Throughout His Presidency, Clinton Made A Point Of Getting Close - Physically And Emotionally - To The People Whose Problems His Administration Was Working To Solve.

Part Of Obama's Persona Is Self-reliance. He's Calm; He's Cool; He's Self-possessed. In Many Ways, He Has Tried To Define Himself In Opposition To Clinton's Sometimes Needy, Often Undisciplined, Emotionalism.

Almost All First Ladies Have Had Tremendous Power On Personnel Issues, Whether The Public Realized It Or Not, Whether It Was Barbara Bush Or Nancy Reagan Or Whoever.

Obama Has Made America Cool Again - And More Than That, He's Made His Own Brand Arguably The Most Powerful The World Has Ever Known.

After I Left The White House, I Kept A Foothold In The Business Of American Politics; As A Talk-show Host, Analyst, Commentator, Speechmaker, And Occasional Writer. I Was No Longer A Practitioner, But I Was Still A Partisan, A Democrat, A Blue-stater Through And Through.

While Eschewing Emotion - And Its Companion, Vulnerability - Obama Should Be Careful Not To Sacrifice Empathy, The 'i Feel Your Pain' Connection That Sustained Clinton. This Connection Is The Shorthand People Use To Measure Their Leaders' Intentions. If People Believe You're On Their Side, They Will Trust Your Decisions.

And Clinton Was Like That - He Saw The Whole Playing Field. He Didn't Just See The Event That He Was At Or The Circumstances Of That Week Or That Month. He Saw The Whole Playing Field All The Time.

I Am Endlessly Fascinated That Playing Football Is Considered A Training Ground For Leadership, But Raising Children Isn't. Hey, It Made Me A Better Leader: You Have To Take A Lot Of People's Needs Into Account; You Have To Look Down The Road. Trying To Negotiate Getting A Couple Of Kids To Watch The Same Tv Show Requires Serious Diplomacy.

The Exposed Nature Of Life In The Public Square Affects Leaders' Attitudes Toward Risk - And Failure.

This Is A Generation Weaned On Watergate, And There Is No Presumption Of Innocence And No Presumption Of Good Intentions. Instead, There Is A Presumption That, Without Relentless Scrutiny, The Government Will Misbehave.

Presumption Of Innocence

I Don't Think Women Hold All The Answers, But With Their Skills, Their Strengths, We Can Get To A Better Place.

There Is An Institutional Cynicism That Causes Reporters To Question Everything The President Says, And The Motives Of Everything The President And His Administration Try To Accomplish.

In The Run-up To The 1992 Democratic Convention, Clinton's Campaign Realized That Voters Thought The Young Governor Had A Privileged Upbringing. They Didn't Buy His Alleged Concern For The Middle Class.

The First Time I Met Bill Clinton Was Actually 1988.

I Think How Pay Gets Determined Is Pretty Broad - Experience, How People Look, What They Bring To The Job. But There's No Question Women Are Paid Less. Women Don't Ask.

I Worked For A Lot Of Candidates, In Tough Campaigns That Lost. Most Of My Candidates Lost Until Bill Clinton. There Was Always A Point Where You Look In Their Eyes And They Knew It Was Over. And There Was Never That Point With Clinton. He Never Quit. He Never Gave Up.

Campaigns Often Make Standing On Principle The Highest Of Virtues - And Listening To Your Opponents A Sure Sign Of Weakness. It's The Virtual Opposite Of What It Takes To Succeed In Office. Squaring The Circle Takes A Powerful Combination Of Skills. But Presidents Who Can Campaign And Compromise Are Generally The Most Successful.

The Press Never Accepts At Face Value That The President Is Taking A Certain Action Because He Wants To Create Jobs Or Because He Believes That It Is In The Best Interests Of The American People Or That He Is Genuinely Committed To Making Life Better For People.

Clinton's Resilience Became Sort Of The Secret Weapon Of The Campaign. He Was Never Going To Just Give Up And Get Out.

If People Believe You're On Their Side, They Will Trust Your Decisions.

During My Years As A Press Secretary, I Developed A Powerful Internal Filter, Which Worked To Strip All Things 'off Message' From My Thoughts Before They Came Out Of My Mouth. It Didn't Always Work, Of Course, And I Said More Than A Few Things I Regretted.

I Know I Made Plenty Of Mistakes In My Tenure. But One Of The Things That You Learn Is To Be Very Careful And To Protect Yourself Down The Road A Little Bit, Which Is To Say You've Got To Think Ahead And Think Where Is The Story Going To Go? What Are All The Possible Outcomes? And How Do I Protect The President From Unexpected Twists And Turns In The Road?

When I Became White House Press Secretary, There Were Other Limitations That Were Thrust Upon Me. Bill Clinton Was Under Pressure To Appoint Women To Visible Positions. I Was 31, I'd Never Worked In Washington. Was I Ready For This Large And Visible Job? Still He Wanted The Credit. So He Gave Me The Job But Diminished The Job.

When I Joined Bill Clinton's Start-up Presidential Campaign In 1991, I Was Confident That Women Would Play An Ever More Important Role, But I Never Gave A Minute's Thought To What Would Happen If We Won. When We Did - And I Became The First Woman To Serve As White House Press Secretary - It Changed My Life. But It Didn't Change The World.

Study After Study Confirms That Even When You Control For Variables Like Profession, Education, Hours Worked, Age, Marital Status, And Children, Men Still Are Compensated Substantially More - Even In Professions, Like Nursing, Dominated By Women. No Wonder There's A Gender Gap.

The Dirty Little Secret Is That The Pool Man, Who's Making $30,000 A Year, Is Subsidizing The Million-dollar Mortgage For The Family Whose Pool He Cleans. No Wonder People Want To Get Rid Of Tax Breaks For Corporate Jets.

That Someone Like Obama Could Be Elected President Of The United States - With Its Unrivaled Power And Prestige - Has Begun To Restore The Country's And The World's Faith In America As The Land Of Opportunity.

My Job Is To Be A Spokesman - The Spokesman, I Suppose - For The President, For The White House, To Do The Daily Briefings, To Manage The Press Corps In Terms Of Travel, Day-to-day Needs, Access, Interviews, All Those Issues.

Yes, Bill Clinton Is A Big Flirt.

Bill Clinton Sitting On Air Force One Getting His Hair Cut While People Around The Country Cooled Their Heels And Waited For Him, Became A Metaphor For A Populist President Who Had Gotten Drunk With The Perks Of His Own Power And Was Sort Of, You Know, Not Sensitive To What People Wanted.

No Doubt, The White House Thinks The American People Know Obama's Story. But Since The Inauguration, We've Seen Only The President's Present: His Perfect Family, His Ivy League Elegance, His Effortless Mastery Of Complex Issues. We Never See Him Sweat. And We Forget That He Ever Had To Struggle.

Democrats Single Out Glaring Examples Of Tax Preferences Or Spending Priorities That Favor The Wealthy And Republicans Cry 'class Warfare!'

You As The Press Secretary Have To Protect The President's Interests And The White House's Interests More Broadly. And A Lot Of People Inside The White House, As You Learned, Sometimes With Painful Experience, Have Competing Agendas, Have Differing Points Of View, Have Priorities They're Trying To Protect.

Painful Experiences

I Think A Lot Of Presidents Learn To Be President By Being President.

Research Confirms That Both Republican And Democratic Women Are More Likely Than Their Male Counterparts To Initiate And Fight For Bills That Champion Social Justice, Protect The Environment, Advocate For Families, And Promote Nonviolent Conflict Resolution.

Women Communicate Differently And Process Information Differently, Which Leads Them To Resolve Conflicts Differently.

1992 Became Known As The 'year Of The Woman' Because So Many Of Us Were Elected To Public Office That November, Including A Record Six To The United States Senate.

Every Press Secretary Faces An Enormous Amount Of Information. Events Move Really Fast. You're Responsible For A Tremendous Amount Of Information, And Again, A Tremendous Amount On Competing Agendas. Not Everybody Grease In The White House.

On The Day I Started College In 1979, No Woman Had Ever Been On The United States Supreme Court Or Served As The Speaker Of The House. None Had Been An Astronaut Or The Solo Anchor Of A Network Evening News Broadcast. Not One Had Been President Of An Ivy League College Or Run A Serious Campaign For President.

There Are People In The Public Sector With A Range Of Experiences That Have No Equivalent In Business, But Are Essential To Governing, Like Keeping A Kid In School Or Helping Someone Get And Hold A Job. The Value Of Those Skills Can't Easily Be Measured Against A Bottom Line.

One Thing I Think Is Least Realistic Is That There Were Five People That Made Decisions In The Fictional 'west Wing.' In Real Life, There Are About Five Million People That Weigh In.

Women Have A Lot Of Power In Private Life. There Are Many Men Who Would Say, 'hey, Women Already Rule My Life.' But With Women, More Is More. The More There Are, The More The World Gets Used To Seeing Them. We Change The Culture. We Begin To Expand Options And Lead And Manage.

No Reporter Is Flying Around In Borrowed Twin-engine Airplanes.

When I First Started Working In Politics, As A Junior Aide On Walter Mondale's 1984 Presidential Campaign, It Never Occurred To Me That I Would One Day Work In The White House. There Were Plenty Of Women Among The Volunteers Who Stuffed Envelopes And Walked Precincts. But There Were Fewer And Fewer On Each Successive Level Of Influence And Access.

Exponential Growth In Access To The Internet, Satellite Television And Radio, Cell Phones, And P.d.a.'s Means That Breaking News Now Reaches Virtually Every Corner Of The Globe.

I'm A Baseball Freak.

Many Differences Are Rooted In Biology And Reinforced Through Culture, So It's Important To Acknowledge That. Because If You Say Men And Women Are The Same And If Male Behaviour Is The Norm, And Women Are Always Expected To Act Like Men, We Will Never Be As Good At Being Men As Men Are.

To Compare Whitewater To Watergate Is A Travesty.

I Am Encouraged To See Women Are Being Elected In Chile, Argentina, Liberia, Ireland. More Is More.

There's No Question Almost Press Secretaries Talk About The Sense Of Serving Two Masters. On The One Hand You Want To Protect The President's Interests, And You Represent His Interests To The Press. And The Press Is A Proxy For The American People.

I Am Endlessly Fascinated That Playing Football Is Considered A Training Ground For Leadership, But Raising Children Isn't.

Palin Was A Political Hail Mary, A Long Bomb In The Closing Minutes Of A Game That John Mccain And Co. Were Certain To Lose. They Didn't Care If She Had The Policy Or Political Or Emotional Capacity To Serve As Vice President, Let Alone President. They Were Willing To Drive The Country Off A Cliff, If That's What It Took To Win.

As Women Slowly Gain Power, Their Values And Priorities Are Reshaping The Agenda. A Multitude Of Studies Show That When Women Control The Family Funds, They Generally Spend More On Health, Nutrition, And Education - And Less On Alcohol And Cigarettes.

Funny Sarcastic

I Was Supposed To Be Authoritative, But At The Same Time Had To Be Likeable, A Quality That Is A Bonus, Not A Requirement, For Men In The Same Position.

Obama Has Become Too Dependent On Formal Speeches And Set Town Halls. His Idea Of Mixing It Up Is Taking Off His Jacket.

Women's Particular Experiences Continue To Shape Not Just Their Points Of View But Their Actions, In The United States And Around The World.

Having A Sense Of Humor Has Served Me More Than It Has Hurt Me - Just In The Sense That It Has Allowed Me To Keep My Sanity.

'not Again!' I Thought To Myself This Morning, As News Trickled Out That John Mccain Was Set To Pick Alaska Governor Sarah Palin As His Running Mate. Not Again, Because Too Often Women Are Promoted For The Wrong Reasons, And Then Blamed When Things Don't Go Right.

Women Have To Be The Biggest Champions In The World Of Other Women's Choices.

Washington Is Still Very Much A Male-oriented Culture. Being From Los Angeles, I Think It Is Less So There - There Is Less Attachment To Tradition, Perhaps, There Is More Flexibility, More Acceptance Of Change Generally. That Is Partly Because Of Hollywood.

President Clinton Intentionally Created A Structure That Was A Little Loose. And One That Kept Him A Little In The Center. He Didn't Want One Person Filtering All The Information That Went To Him. He Had Always Operated With A Lot Of Information Coming In And A Lot Of Stuff Going Out.

That's Not To Say That Women's Priorities Are Better Than Men's. Rather, When Women Are Empowered, When They Can Speak From The Experience Of Their Own Lives, They Often Address Different, Previously Neglected Issues. And Families And Whole Communities Benefit.

Trying To Negotiate Getting A Couple Of Kids To Watch The Same Tv Show Requires Serious Diplomacy.

Clinton Had Absolutely Zero Honeymoon, None Whatsoever.

As Women Have Played An Increasingly Important Role In Politics, There Is No Question That They've Brought A Different Perspective, Focusing Attention On A Broader Set Of Issues And Building Alliances With Other Women.

A Lot Of People Over Time Have Had This Kind Of Pattern In Their Relationship With Bill Clinton. You First Meet Him And You're Overwhelmed By His Talent. He's So Energetic And Articulate And Full Of Ideas And He Calls Himself A Congenital Optimist And That Optimism Is Contagious.

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