FARAI CHIDEYA, host:
We have to move on to our Reporters' Roundtable. We're going to talk a little bit more about the media but also President George W. Bush. He throws a lifeline to automakers, and President-elect Barack Obama ticks off some supporters with his choice of the pastor who's going to deliver his inaugural invocation. Here to talk about the week's top headlines, we've got John Yearwood, the world editor at the Miami Herald, and Clarence Page, columnist for the Chicago Tribune. Welcome guys.
Mr. JOHN YEARWOOD (World Editor, Miami Herald): Thank you.
Mr. CLARENCE PAGE (Columnist, Chicago Tribune): Hello, Farai.
CHIDEYA: So, you know, we're canceled, but we're still here. So, we're glad you're here.
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CHIDEYA: How are you guys doing this week?
Mr. PAGE: Well, Tribune Company isn't doing that great either, so...
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Mr. PAGE: We're all suffering from the media earthquake these days.
CHIDEYA: All right.
Mr. YEARWOOD: That's right.
CHIDEYA: Well, we're going to have a good holiday anyway. Let's move on to politics. President Bush announced this morning that the federal government is going to give $13.4 billion-with-a-B in emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler. In February, the struggling automakers are going to get another four billion. Now, the loans require that the car companies make major changes, show that they will once again be profitable. So, from your perspective, Clarence, what is the government achieving with these bailouts? And will it be successful?
Mr. PAGE: Well, they're kicking the can down the road because this will be enough money in emergency loans to keep General Motors and Chrysler going for about, what? Until March - until March 31st, when it will be President Barack Obama's problem. The main situation - well, the big debate is just what's the best way to help the auto companies. That debate really hasn't changed, but obviously President Bush agrees with most Democrats that these firms involve too many jobs to be allowed to just go into bankruptcy and fail. But the long-term question of how do you help that industry still isn't answered.
CHIDEYA: Now, Chrysler announced that it's going to close all of its 30 North American manufacturing plants for four weeks. General Motors is going to close 20 factories, many for the entire month of January. So, auto plants usually close for the holidays. These are extended closures. Do you think, John, that there's going to be kind of a Christmas miracle, for lack of a better word, and people will be able to go back to work earlier, or is that not something that you anticipate being on the table?
Mr. YEARWOOD: Well, Farai, one would hope that the announcement by the president this morning would give hope to a number of people. But I wanted to add to what Clarence was saying about - it seems clear to me that what the president was doing, perhaps not elegant, but certainly a tap dance in which he wanted to make sure that none of the major automakers will file bankruptcy during his term. He wanted to make - pass it down the road, kick it down the road, so that it's something that Barack Obama would have to deal with. What's key there is what you were getting at, is the fact that there are people in the middle of all of this and how they're going to do, how they're going to be able to feed their families, how they're going to be able to spend the holidays. And that's where I think a lot of the focus needs to be going forward.
CHIDEYA: This is a time when, you know, in this nation not only do you have the massive job layoffs, but you also have a very strange situation with the American presidency, where you have an outgoing president who has really stepped back out of public life in some ways and an incoming president who is all over the news. Do you think it's good or bad for the future of the Obama administration that he is the de facto person who gets the most airtime compared to the actual president? What do you think, Clarence?
Mr. PAGE: Well, this is hardly a rewriting of the rules. This is how we do it in America. And this system was put together back in the horse-and-buggy era. Today, communication is so much faster, so revved up, that every day we journalists are asking, what are you going to do next, President-elect Obama? And there's new pressure on people.
Also, Franklin Roosevelt back in those Depression days just had a strictly hands-off policy as he was coming in, even though President Hoover wanted him to join together in joint action to save the banks. Roosevelt also said, you know, one president at a time, and as the result, the Depression deepened and the problem got much worse. So, there is more pressure now on Barack Obama to at least show what direction is ahead. But - and I think on the whole, he's getting high marks for the way he is handling it. We can certainly see the stock market bounce doesn't seem as severe as before and the Fed is responding. You know, he seems to be doing a pretty good job of it under the circumstances.
CHIDEYA: All right. Well, John, what about some of these choices in terms of the Cabinet? I just want to bring up one person. We've talked a little bit about Arne Duncan. What about the new Labor secretary nominee? She is Hilda Solis of California, considered a liberal. She's from a Latino-dominated district. What do you see ahead from that nomination?
Mr. YEARWOOD: Well, clearly from some of the information we've seen out there, she's very much in tune with what labor wants. So, we'll be seeing a lot of, you know, the desires of labor represented in some of the things that she's pushing for as Labor secretary, which is something that, as you know, we haven't seen for the last eight years. So, clearly labor is celebrating the pick. And if I can go back for a second to what you were talking about with Clarence...
CHIDEYA: Please.
Mr. YEARWOOD: I think it's really important to say that one of the reasons why we're seeing so much of the president-elect and some people are looking for him for leadership right now is because we're at a time of war, and not only that; we're also in the middle of an economic crisis. And I think that there's probably something to be said for the parliamentary system, which I grew up in living in Trinidad, where the person who's elected becomes the leader the following day, the prime minister, so that there isn't all this time in the middle to have two separate heads of state, if you will.
CHIDEYA: Great point. And we're going to get more great points from you after a break. Clarence, John. Stay with us.
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CHIDEYA: This is News & Notes. I'm Farai Chideya. We're back with our Reporters' Roundtable. We've got John Yearwood, the world editor at the Miami Herald, and Clarence Page, columnist for the Chicago Tribune. So, guys, I'm going to move on to Rick Warren. Now, President-elect Obama has some supporters who are really ticked off. He chose Pastor Rick Warren to give his invocation at the inauguration in January. Now, Warren supported Proposition 8 in California. It's the ballot measure that passed and banned same-sex marriage in the state. Many of his gay supporters, some of whom raised a ton of money for the campaign, are incensed. Clarence, do you think this is going to cause some problems?
Mr. PAGE: You know, it's interesting that Obama made this decision because he has - well, he's had a long-standing relationship with Rick Warren. And I think that while, predictably, gay-rights activists are going to be upset with Obama for including Warren, they're already upset with Obama for opposing gay marriage all along. He supports civil unions, he supports all other versions of gay rights, but he draws the line there, as did all the other Democratic candidates for president, the leading ones. And Rick Warren draws a similar line. I think what's interesting about Barack Obama is, generationally, he's from a little younger generation than us '60s boomers. He is more of an outreach kind of guy, middle-of-the-road, and so is Rick Warren among Evangelicals. He's actually viewed as a moderate in their movement, which was a big reason why the two of them worked together to try to benefit from each other's audiences-slash-congregations, if you will. Well, I think this is a predictable dustup right now that in the long run may actually help Obama.
CHIDEYA: John, Rick Warren staged and executed an incredibly high-profile event, which was a values forum. It almost was like a debate. It was one of these moments where you didn't have Senator Obama and Senator McCain face to face, but it was one of those landmark moments in the election. This is an incredibly powerful man; we've had him on. He said that he doesn't want to really interact with politics in a way where he is at all associated with any administration, but give me a little bit of your sense of who Warren is in the political atmosphere.
Mr. YEARWOOD: Clearly, he's huge, and I think it was interesting - I watched that landmark discussion out in California. What I thought was interesting about that - a lot of pundits said after that that the president-elect, Senator Obama at the time, did not do particularly well. So, one may wonder why would he want him at his inauguration.
CHIDEYA: Right.
Mr. YEARWOOD: But it was clear that, you know, the president-elect has had a long-standing relationship with Rick. And I think what's also interesting about this is that it also brings more people to the inaugural table, if you will, on the day of the inauguration. A lot of people who feel deeply the way Rick does may not have seen any reason to get up and turn on the television set. This brings in some additional viewers to hear what the president-elect has to say. And if you look at his Cabinet picks, it's clear that he wants to look at a much larger tent and he has things to say. And I think this is an opportunity to get a number of different people who otherwise would not have been inclined to listen to his inaugural address to do so.
CHIDEYA: Let's take a quick look at one last topic, and this is getting a lot of heat. Senator Obama, or former Senator Obama, President-elect Obama, picked Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of State nominee. And her husband, Bill Clinton, former president, has run a charity since he's been out of office. He released a list of donors yesterday who've given money. You've got Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments who've donated at least $46 million to the William J. Clinton Foundation; Blackwater Training Center was listed as a corporate donor. Some people are saying, as a married couple, she needs to be accountable for part of his actions if they don't like who his donors are. Clarence, is that fair?
Mr. PAGE: Ah, yes, that's fair. It's - the thing is, there are going to be questions raised understandably about any relationship that a spouse has with overseas governments and companies, companies involved, and anything that the secretary of State is involved in. And you know, there are issues coming up regarding India and Pakistan. Will the Pakistanis perceive, justifiably or not, a bias for India because India gave a big load of money to the Clinton - Bill Clinton's foundation? Same thing with Saudi Arabia; same thing with Blackwater. So, I think these are legitimate questions. How they're going to be handled, I'm not quite sure.
CHIDEYA: Do you think this could possibly upend the nomination, John?
Mr. YEARWOOD: Oh, absolutely. I think the senator has tremendous support on the Hill. And one of the things that I thought was interesting about this is that we saw something similar after the former President Bush left office. He was - he received a lot of money from the Saudis. He's spoken at a number of capitals around the world. I don't think there was a lot of discussion made at that time that in giving money to his library they were influencing his son, which was the incoming president. So, I think after awhile we'll get beyond this. Certainly, former President Clinton has talked about some different things that he will be doing, far more so than any previous president, to make sure that there is transparency. The question is whether or not that will happen. I don't think it's as much as what has happened in the past, but what will be happening going forward.
CHIDEYA: Well, gentlemen, have a great weekend. Great talking to you.
Mr. PAGE: You, too, Farai.
Mr. YEARWOOD: And happy holidays to you, Farai.
CHIDEYA: Yes, happy holidays to both of you.
Mr. PAGE: Thank you.
Mr. YEARWOOD: Thank you.
CHIDEYA: We were speaking with John Yearwood, world editor at the Miami Herald; he joined us from the studios at the Miami Herald; and Clarence Page, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.
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