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[Music]
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a good question to start with is in
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light of the dramatic results of this
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election what should the Obama
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Administration be doing and in
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particular what should the president
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take
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on and briefly I would suggest the
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following if I were to sit in the Oval
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Office and he would say Mike what's next
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I would say uh this Friday let's do an
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after action review let's look back on
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what happened over the last two years
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what went right what in your view went
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wrong and looking at the next two years
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what can be done better going forward in
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light of the fact that this set of
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election results said things have not
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gone as well as you certainly would have
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hoped that they did go call it the after
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action review call it a kind of a reset
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button but let's take a good look
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backwards to be more clear-minded on how
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we should go forward next two years I
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think in terms of uh a really good
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question here on what should Obama do
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when it comes to communicating with the
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American public and his various
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constituencies actually internationally
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as well as
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domestic I'll draw on a project I did
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last couple years with two colleagues on
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what company CEO said they did do in
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getting through this huge financial
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crisis of ' 089
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two points stand out I think from that
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research that bear on what Obama might
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want to take on going forward number one
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the uh fifth we talked to 15 Chief
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Executives who' gone through that
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wrenching period and they said number
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one that they learned to be brutally
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clear about what is happening to get at
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the reality of what's around them to
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accept and in fact identify the huge
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problems that the country is facing in a
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in the president's case here and to say
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that so A a big doise a big dose of
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realism here is vital number two the
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chief Executives do say that in that
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crisis getting people through that
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crisis
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frequent put it more aggressively more
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frequent communication with the key
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groups upon whom they depend to get
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their job done vital so for the chief
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executive of a company the board of
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directors the bigest investors the
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customers the employees and the
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community for Barack Obama vital to be
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aggressively communicating going forward
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now uh with the voters with the country
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leaders outside the US certainly with
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the house and the Senate going forward I
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think in terms of leadership challenges
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that the new leader of the house uh will
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undoubtedly face are really in my view
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to uh when we say leader it means means
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that the person now at the top of the
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house has to make things happen for the
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house as part of our governance process
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here and with a um internally divided
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party and big divisions with the
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opposition party uh the new leader of
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the house is going to have to work real
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hard to build a common ground uh within
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his party and then across the the aisle
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there and then number two it's obvious
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as soon as I say it uh leadership is
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getting things done of having a vision
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and then executing around that with a
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good strategy to get anything done in
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the United States as a house leader
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you've got to work with the US Senate
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you've got to work with the White House
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and so the new leader of the house has
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in most likely it'll be he uh will have
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his house his H work cut out for him in
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creating Unity within the party and in
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building consensus across the divide in
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the uh within the Congress uh within the
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house then with the Senate and then with
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the White House you know in this issue
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of how the te party has been able to
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mobilize so successfully and so many
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constituencies the votes they needed to
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get their candidates elected to office
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what comes to mind is research done
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actually many years ago
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on social protest movements on the right
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that is what has driven uh the emergence
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of right-wing or very conservative
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movements in American history going back
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an analysis that I think is correct is
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that when people are feeling
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dislocated and not optimistic about
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their future they are more prepared to
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go to um not extreme ideologies but
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ideologies or thoughts that are often at
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one end of the spectrum uh they move
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away from the center and to me anyway I
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think this the Tea Party is a reflection
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of the of the profound
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unease that so many people feel about
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where the us is going in the world
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economy profound about the fact that
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their real earning power has been flat
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for better than a decade now uh and
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obviously huge uncertainty about where
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our economy is going put those factors
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together we may or may not agree with uh
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the way they articulate what they want
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done but I think much of the energy of
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the Tea Party Movement is coming out of
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the fact that our economy very uncertain
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very unclear where it's going to go and
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for many people it's been a very hard
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period for
