How is Obama doing?

Adriel Bettelheim is the White House correspondent for CQPolitics and co-authors "Balance of Power". He directed or contributed to coverage of post-9/11 homeland security and intelligence efforts, the Bush administration’s 2004 overhaul of Medicare and the financial market collapse. Bettelheim is the author of "Aging in America: A to Z," a reference on politics and aging issues and was also a Knight Fellow in political reporting at the University of Maryland.

This discussion is over, but please read the transcript below.

• Moderator:

  Welcome to our Live Online chat.

  Adriel Bettelheim, CQ's White House correspondent, is ready to answer your questions about the new administration. Or maybe you can suggest some questions that HE ought to ask the new administration.

• Adriel Bettelheim:

  Thanks!

  Let's start the conversation.

• Emily from Madison, Wisconsin: Do you think his use of the presidency as a bully pulpit is falling on deaf ears? I liked how he said "now is the time to put away childish things." However, I do not see a significant change in behavior and a sense of entitlement which got us into this mess. Do you have a sense that Americans elected a moral leader without a will to actually follow his directive?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  I think Obama has the will to back up his desire for change.

   

  I also think he understands he can't use the "bully pulpit" to actually change people's minds. Rather, he's using it to change what Americans are talking about.

   

  By going to economically devastated communities like Elkhart, Ind. to promote the stimulus package, he's showing that segments of the population are really hurting -- and that a traditional "red state" can benefit from his agenda. That prompts those of us in the Washington press corps to look outside the Beltway and focus on what people in these communities are talking about.

   

  In a sense, he's using his oratorical skills to go over the heads of members of Congress, and expecting the public may eventually pressure lawmakers to come around to his way of thinking.

• Gus from Detroit: Is the White House committed to saving the U.S. car making industry?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  Not without extracting concessions on fuel economy, emissions caps and other environmental issues.

   

  Remember, he has to strike a balance between helping the manufacturing sector and organized labor, and catering to Democrats' "green" constituencies. That's why he ordered the EPA to reconsider California's bid to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.  

• Dave from Bismarck: Which set of numbers seems to guide White House thinking more, rising unemployment or the falling stock market?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  Obama's team has repeatedly said they're not interested in one-day or even one-week stock market reactions to the stimulus package, the plan to slow mortgage foreclosures or other big policy initiatives.

   

  And a case can be made that big market plunges are more a function of short-sellers' reactions than broad market sentiment.

   

  However, it's a fact that stock market performance, for better or worse, influences Americans' perception of the state of the economy. I think the White House right now is focused on the fact that the economy has been shedding more than half a million jobs a month for the past three months.

   

  That's why the stimulus is being sold as saving or creating 3.5 to 4 million jobs. Job creation will be the short-term barometer to measure whether his economic agenda is working.

• Emily from DC: How does travel affect Obama? Why did he choose to sign the stimulus bill in Colorado, instead of in DC? And what about his trips around the country beforehand - it felt like he was on the campaign trail all over again.
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  The president is a pretty vigorous guy, and I don't think the travel is wearing on him as much as on the reporters who have to follow him around.

   

  The reason he signed the stimulus bill in Colorado is that it benefits him to get away from the Beltway sniping. Polls suggest he clearly is more popular than the legislation he's promoting. So by traveling around the country, he can depict himself as an outsider trying to change things. It kind of obscures the fact he's now on the inside.

• Derek from Baltimore: Adriel, Given how they couldn't pull a single House GOP vote and only got three Senate GOP'ers for the stimulus, how in the world is the White House planning for bigger fights like universal health care or a potential Supreme Court vacancy?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  That's the million-dollar question. Make that billion-dollar.

   

  No one does millions anymore.

   

  Obama's team says the bipartisan outreach will lay a foundation for collaboration and mutual trust down the road. Maybe.

   

  But to win over enough Republicans he either has to A) convince a sufficient number that he and they have mutual interests (say, overhauling the health care system) even though they have different electoral coalitions, or B) take advantage of the public's general distaste for political grandstanding.

   

  I think the seemingly perpetual threat of filibusters will eventually provoke some backlash. The question is for how long will Sens. Specter, Snowe and Collins help provide the filibuster-proof majority.

• A. Furbo from Kansas City: How does the president get some exercise and blow off steam? Clinton jogged, Bush rode a bicycle, Ford swam. Whatever Obama does, does he do it every day?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  Obama works out quite regularly and is a passionate pick-up basketball player, though it's been too cold to use the outdoor court on the White House grounds.

   

  Several senior staff and Cabinet members like Education Secretary Arne Duncan are seriously good players. And his personal aide, Reggie Love, played basketball and football at Duke.

• Julie from Kalamazoo, Mich.: What's the atmosphere like in the White House? Is is a fun place to work or is everybody all tense and serious?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  I think the gravity of the times has made it a pretty serious place. But there is room for some levity.

   

  The press secretary Robert Gibbs enjoys bantering with reporters and making tortured sports analogies during the daily briefings. And there's the natural sense of awe and disorientation you find whenever a new staff gets settled in.

   

  A lot of these folks worked on the campaign and lived for months out of suitcases. Now, they're getting their security clearances, getting besieged with paperwork and just trying to find out where the cafeteria is located.

• Tom from D.C.: Adriel, So much of Obama's campaign rhetoric set an uplifting tone that embodied the hope for bringing disparate groups together: Dems and GOP, whites and blacks, etc. Is it fair to judge how successful he's been to that end by how his cabinet is received? AG Holder's recent remarks on race seem especially divisive. Does any of that flak diminish Obama's credibility as a transcendent political figure?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  Thanks for the question, but I think it's a bit early to tell.

   

  I certainly think his bipartisan outreach to Republicans on the Hill helps solidify the perception he's a different breed of politician who is loath to engage in the usual trench warfare.

   

  And we may yet see him knit together a broad political coalition consisting of different segments of society, a la FDR.  He has, to date, been more visible and is engaging in more public discourse than any president in recent memory.

• Bill in Virginia: Has the president assembled a task force or some other kind of working group to begin drafting plans for his health care reform package in a form that can be submitted for Congress to use as a guide?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  The transition team began melding his campaign platform with feedback they were receiving from supporters even before he was sworn in.

   

  The withdrawal of HHS secretary nominee Tom Daschle kind of threw a monkey wrench into some of that.

   

  But meanwhile, lawmakers on the Hill are working on plans, in consultation with the administration. There is a sense of urgency due to the declining health of Sen. Ted Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee that would shepherd any such plan.

• KJ from DC: Adriel, what's going to happen with the environment, and particularly climate change, now that the economy seems to be dominating the conversation. Will President Obama let the environment slide?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  I think he is prodding Congress to engage on climate change this year by, for example, ordering federal regulators to review California’s bid to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.

   

  Because the review could take months, lawmakers, including those sympathetic to U.S. automakers, could opt to take the lead and spell out their expectations of regulators.

   

  Down the road, I think Obama wants to involve Canada, the European industrial powers and others in a cap-and-trade system for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. That entails a delicate mix of diplomacy and forward-thinking regulation. I believe the administration wants to show progress this year but has to focus first on the worsening economy at home.

• Gayle in Virginia: Only four weeks in and there is already a lot of grumbling about the new administration (not that I expected anything else from certain media outlets, ahem, Morning Joe). Are expectations too high for this early in the Obama presidency? Or, does the American public need to dial down its need for total instant gratification from a guy that inherited a real mess?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  There are always high expectations for a new administration, especially when the nation's facing a war or economic crisis. People just tend to conflate their personal hopes with the new president's success.

   

  I don't know if the public needs to dial down its expectations, but Obama himself is trying to do that by repeatedly warning that there are more tough times ahead.

   

  He understands that later this year he probably will have to go to Congress for a second TARP or some other kind of big, expensive relief measure that will be hard to sell to lawmakers and the public. I think it's understandable that people expect a lot from a candidate who hammered home a theme of change and portrayed himself as able to overcome so many traditional fault lines -- partisan, racial, etc.

• Dante from Michigan: Does Joe Biden have an office in the White House or does he have to stay in some other building?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  The vice president has an office in the west wing and a very ornate ceremonial office next door, in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

   

  The ceremonial office used to belong to the Navy Secretary from the 1870s to 1920s.

• Isaac from Iowa:

  Labor was one of Obama's most energetic backers during the campaign and their biggest priority is "card check" or the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to unionize. Not surprisingly, Republicans and the business community strongly oppose it.

   

  Do you think Obama will try to get it passed? And if so, when?

• Adriel Bettelheim: Obama remains committed to the effort, but the job really falls to congressional Democrats, who have to muscle the bill past Republicans. Republican senators spotlighted the issue during confirmation hearings for Obama's Labor secretary designate, Rep. Hilda Solis.
• Leah from New York: What country Obama will visit next, now that he's done Canada?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  He'll be going to London in early April to attend a summit of the G20 group of advanced and developing nations. 

   

  He also promised that during his first 100 days in office he would travel to a Muslim state and deliver a major address. Some have suggested he will go to Indonesia, where he lived for a few years as a child. Other countries that have been mentioned include Turkey and Egypt.

• Joe from Calif.: Does the president seem embarrassed or otherwise running out of patience with Sen. Burris?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  He's trying to avoid that subject.

   

  His spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said the people deserve to know the truth about Burris' dealings with the disgraced ex-Illinois governor, but hasn't accused Burris of misrepresentations. It's a distraction and annoyance for a politician who's worked hard to distance himself from some of the sketchier aspects of Illinois politics.

• Gracie from Newark: At the press conference they showed on TV, Obama seemed to have a list of what reporters he wanted to call on. Why play favorites like that?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  This is a formula Obama began using during the transition and tends to favor network TV correspondents, national wire service reporters and writers from national newspapers.

   

  But he threw a blogger from Huffington Post into the mix during his first televised news conference, so maybe there will be more changes. It does tend to make those who aren't called on feel like props.

• Brian in Laredo: I haven't heard anything about immigration. Do you know if Obama thinks it's a problem, and if he does, is it just one more thing taking a back seat to a bad economy?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  Like John McCain, candidate Obama favored a mix of tougher border enforcement and a so-called "path to citizenship" for illegal immigrants already in the U.S.

   

  I wouldn't expect this to rise to the top of the agenda now that he's president. With the economy in a free fall and many Americans desparate to find work, such efforts could antagonize organized labor and create the perception he's allowing certain folks to cut in line.

• Skeptic from the South: During the campaign, the press looked to be in the bag for Obama, at least to me and my favorite radio talk show hosts. How tough are they being now?
• Adriel Bettelheim:

  I think there's always something of a honeymoon period with new presidents.

   

  Even George W. Bush got a lot of favorable press treatment early in his first term. But I already sense tougher questions for Obama, prompted by pushback against the stimulus, his new military commitment in Afghanistan and the drip-drip of bad economic news.

   

  Oh, the snafus over some of his Cabinet nominations prompted tough questions about the administration's vetting, and whether their commitment to openness and transparency was conditional.