May 8, 2009 By: yunews
May 8, 2009 -- It was as if their New York Times blog 鈥淭he Conversation鈥 came to life on stage at the Schottenstein Cultural Center when columnists David Brooks and Gail Collins met to talk about President Barack Obama鈥檚 first 100 days in office on April 27.
The incisive and wide-ranging discussion鈥攑art of the Dr. Marcia Robbins-Wilf Scholar-in-Residence Program鈥攚as moderated by Professor Bryan Daves of the 91黑料 political science department and director of the Robbins-Wilf program.
Punctuated with wit and candid anecdotes of politicians behind the scenes, the conversation jumped from health care to the economy to foreign policy, reflecting the ambitious course of action of a president who, as Brooks put it, has 鈥淸bitten] off as much as he can chew.鈥
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The two veteran journalists agreed that Barack Obama could very well fundamentally change the direction of policy and the nature of politics in the United States, but they diverged over their assessment of his policies.
鈥淥bama has a tremendous chance to be a transformative president,鈥 said Brooks, whose op-ed column in the Times began in 2003 and who regularly appears on PBS鈥 NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. 鈥淗e has made more proposals in 98 days than most presidents do in their entire presidencies.鈥
Brooks cited Obama鈥檚 biggest achievement to-date as 鈥渞unning a competent administration,鈥 explaining that it was not a given that the former junior senator would know how to put together a smooth-running administration. But he sounded the alarm at what he termed the president鈥檚 鈥渙ff-the-charts self-confidence.鈥
鈥淭here is a danger of over-reach鈥攈e has taken on the auto industry, health care and a million other things,鈥 Brooks said. 鈥淚t has been a very successful 100 days鈥攁nd he has done it by spending money we don鈥檛 have,鈥 he added, emphasizing the concern expressed by many conservatives that the Obama administration鈥檚 budget plans are not sustainable in the long-term.
Collins, who was the first woman to be named editorial page editor of the Times and who now writes a twice-weekly column for the paper, took a different tack on Obama鈥檚 priorities. 鈥淗ealth care has become the defining goal of the first year of his term,鈥 she said. 鈥淗e has also honed in on saving the middle class and shrinking the gap between the middle and upper class.鈥
She disagreed with Brooks on the wisdom of tackling both the economy and health care at the same time. 鈥淢ost people agree that you cannot fix the economy without fixing health care鈥攁nd he doesn鈥檛 have forever to do this,鈥 she said, referring to the view held by many in Washington that if there is to be a major push on health care, it will have to take place in Obama鈥檚 first year in office.
On the state of the Republican Party, the two shared ground. They said that after the large-scale losses in the last two election cycles, the Republican Party is trying to find its bearing, and that the election of Barack Obama may indeed portend a long-term shift for the direction of the country and in the fortunes of the two major parties.
鈥淭he idea of the free market leading the country has been supplanted by the responsible leadership class,鈥 said Brooks. Taking what he wryly termed the 鈥渕aximalist鈥 view, Brooks said that the Republican Party in the U.S. is 鈥渢hree election defeats away from the kind of rebirth the British Conservative Party is experiencing,鈥 alluding to the first possible Conservative victory in Britain since Tony Blair鈥檚 Labour Party took power in 1997. Collins said she had never seen a group of people with less of an overriding message or agenda as the Republicans.
The two journalists agreed that Obama faces daunting foreign policy challenges.. Despite the new administration鈥檚 diplomatic overtures to Iran, they saw that country鈥檚 development of nuclear weapons as inevitable. They agreed that the U.S. presence in Afghanistan would be long and that achieving American goals there would be difficult.
Collins raised the concern that a U.S. troops withdrawal would result in 鈥渢he women of Afghanistan [being] thrown under the bus,鈥 arguing that the settlement of the conflict in Afghanistan could very well result in a return of many of the restrictions on women instituted under the Taliban.
On the question of Israel, Brooks said Obama would be tougher on the issue of the settlements than previous administrations, and predicted that the two countries would diverge on their policies toward Iran.
He foresaw 鈥渘ot a difference in view but in salience and panic鈥濃攁n opinion echoed by Collins, who noted that there was no desire on the part of Obama to do anything to offend Israel in any way. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 because it is not top of [the administration鈥檚] agenda. They will be happy to keep the status quo,鈥 she said .
The discussion drew a capacity crowd from the University community and the general public. Previous speakers in the Robbins-Wilf Scholar-in-Residence Program have included celebrated poet Maya Angelou; Samantha Power, founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author; Ronald Brownstein, prominent political analyst and political director of the Atlantic Media Company; Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN and currently President Obama's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan; and Dennis Ross, former Special Middle East Coordinator under President Clinton and currently Special Adviser to Secretary of State Clinton for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia.
Dr. Robbins-Wilf, a founding member of the Stern College Board of Directors, established the program in 2001 to bring to the campus outstanding figures in diverse fields to benefit both students and faculty.
