1 big thing ... Scoop: Inside Biden's private chat with historians
If there is any reason to become President, meeting with many of America's finest historians would be at the top of my list.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Hosting historians around a long table in the East Room earlier this month, President Biden took notes in a black book as they discussed some of his most admired predecessors. Then he said to Doris Kearns Goodwin: "I'm no FDR, but … "
- Why it matters: He'd like to be.
The March 2 session, which the White House kept under wraps, reflects Biden's determination to be one of the most consequential presidents.
- The chatty, two-hour-plus meeting is a for-the-history-books marker of the think-big, go-big mentality that pervades his West Wing.
The big picture: Biden's presidency has already been transformative, and he has many more giant plans teed up that could make Biden's New Deal the biggest change to governance in our lifetimes.
- Biden, who holds his first formal news conference today at 1:15 p.m. in the East Room, started his term with the $1.9 trillion COVID bill, with numerous measures tucked in to reduce inequality.
- Vaccines are rolling out, positioning Biden to get ahead of the pandemic. Democrats in Congress are pushing the most sweeping changes in voting rights since the 1960s.
- And he's preparing an infrastructure and green-energy plan that's bigger than the original tab for the Interstate highway system, to be followed by a domestic proposal (free community college, universal pre-K) that brings the pair of packages to $3 trillion, with possible pay-fors that would dramatically rebalance the tax system.
Attendees tell me that the afternoon session with historians was held in a White House that was ghostly quiet, because many fewer aides are working in Biden's COVID-era West Wing than are typical. To some of the guests, it felt like a snow day.
- The session was organized by Jon Meacham, the presidential biographer and informal Biden adviser who has helped with big speeches from Nashville, and serves as POTUS' historical muse.
- Besides Goodwin, participants included Michael Beschloss, author Michael Eric Dyson, Yale's Joanne Freeman, Princeton's Eddie Glaude Jr., Harvard's Annette Gordon-Reed and Walter Isaacson.
Biden made it clear to his guests that he knew the gravity of the multiple crises facing America. He knew a lot about Franklin D. Roosevelt, and peppered Goodwin with questions about the World War II leader.
- Beyond the icons (Lincoln, LBJ), the conversation got as granular as the Jay Treaty of 1794.
- They talked a lot about the elasticity of presidential power, and the limits of going bigger and faster than the public might anticipate or stomach.
Afterward, Biden told an aide: "I could have gone another two hours."
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Any good conversation will digress into a myriad of subjects ... don't hold back.
ahhh, to have an adult back in our White House again...
cool 'tude, dude...
Ideas give birth to ideas and if ideas are your cake, you can have it and eat it too.
Poor Marie Antoinette ... she got saddled with a saying she never made.
Hahaha
We've already devolved into cannibalism in Thread #2
It'll be a shit-storm when the vegans show up.
Between the two of you we are staring at a gastro-intestinal apocalypse of biblical prescription!
The man has a big taste for knowledge and history unlike Trump who only had a taste for Diet Coke.
and KFC. Don't forget the Colonel's Finest
I wonder what the former biggest twit on twitter does now at 3am on the shitter.
The Devil said the Colonel tasted like chicken.
I have to know..did the Devil roast him or eat him raw?
Frozen ... Danté got the weather wrong.
Gives a whole new meaning to Chicken on a Stick
Be funnier.
And Big Macs.
that's pretty far down his comedy list from laughing at the dumb asses that voted for him, the gullible morons that sent/send him money, the traitors that attempted sedition at his direction and failed, the delusional that think he can make a political comeback, and the rwnj political peter puffers that still defend him at every opportunity, by trolling.
I have to know..did the Devil roast him or eat him raw?
If he had gone down to Georgia, he would have had him fried.
Otherwise ..... Fava Beans with a nice chianti
Anyone remember this Twilight Zone episode from the 1980s...
Twilight Zone 80's - 1x29 - I of Newton Twilight Zone The - Bing video
If not.... keep an eye on Ron Glass's T-Shirt printing through the video!
Your kingdom for a moderate...?
When dealing with horses........ make sure you aren't missing any nails, or all hell can break loose.
Very cool to find out you are just as twisted as I am...... Far Side indeed!
If I were the president, I think I would do the same. It's a great way to gain insight and maybe help Joe in his decisions.
I would be sorely tempted to trade my soul to be marooned on an atoll with Doris.
In theory a baseball game can last for an eternity and that seduced me.
my concept of the only sport in hell. well that and a ∞yd. par 4, bordered with sand pits, off the first tee.
I don't even play golf but that sounds like the tee box from Hell. At least there's no water hazards.
The water hazard is behind the tee.
I can still hit it, lol.
like pissing without getting your shoes wet, it's either your grip or your stance.