David Axelrod on Conversations with Bill Kristol

[open] [View this email in your browser]( David Axelrod on Conversations with Bill Kristol Dear Friends, The Foundation for Constitutional Government is pleased to announce the release of a [conversation with former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod]( on Conversations with Bill Kristol. Chapter descriptions are attached (click on the images below to view each chapter). In this Conversation, David Axelrod discusses the 2016 elections, particularly at the presidential level, and reflects on Hillary Clinton's campaign and the victory of Donald Trump. He also considers challenges and opportunities for the Democrats and Republicans during the Trump presidency and possible paths forward for both parties. Finally, Kristol and Axelrod discuss the early days of the Trump White House and consider the prospects for his presidency. To view the other Conversations that have been previously posted, [click here.]( This Conversation and all previous releases are also available as audio podcasts on [iTunes]( and [Stitcher](. Best, Andy Zwick Executive Director Below are excerpts from the Conversation: On the Character of the Trump White House AXELROD: Every organization takes on the personality of the person on top. The Obama White House was very tranquil. There weren't knife fights going on all the time, there weren't a lot of leaks, there were high ethical standards. "No drama Obama" was not just a line, it was a reality. Trump is all drama. He has a big name but the truth is he had a small business and it was largely his family. And he could operate on whim with some impunity. Now he's in an entirely different place. People wanted someone who was from the outside that would kick the whole thing in the ass. But the flipside is that he has no understanding of the institution that he is leading. It makes for a chaotic situation, as does having all these competing power centers in the White House. White Houses have to have a structure to run efficiently and there has to be someone in charge other than the president who is the filter through which a lot of this goes: generally, the chief of staff. You can't have all these different competing power centers—Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, Kellyanne Conway—and have an efficient operation. People close to him say this is how he operates. Creative tension and all that. I don't know if he can fix that, but he's going to have to if he wants to achieve what he wants to achieve. On the Hillary Clinton Campaign AXELROD: I think it's fair to say that [Hillary Clinton] was probably the least capable candidate [to oppose Donald Trump]. President [Bill] Clinton, who is as clever a politician as we've seen in our lifetime, tried to rotate the prism and he talked about her history, her legitimately honorable history, working on civil rights issues in the 70s, working on children's issues, and so on. But that's not really the kind of change people were talking about. Then there was the attempt to say, well, because she's a woman she would represent change. That didn't work for a couple of reasons. One is after having the first African American president, electing the first woman president seemed a little less remarkable to people. It didn't have the allure. The second thing is that Hilary Clinton spent years deemphasizing that fact that she was a woman and projecting a sense that she was tough enough and strong enough. I think it's one of the reasons she was eager to be on the Armed Services Committee [in the Senate]. She wanted to be a Margaret Thatcher-type character. I don't think people thought of her in that way. She was not a persuasive agent of change. She was seen as she was in 2008: as an exemplar of the Washington status quo. On the Mood and Direction of the Democrats AXELROD: There is a very determined mood among Democrats. In many ways it's easier to be the opposition party politically than to hold the White House. First of all, complacency sets in when you hold the White House. Governing has its complexities and, if you're not faced with that, it's easier to organize. I think that Democrats are going to have a much better 2018 than they would have had the election gone differently. The big question is who emerges as a potential candidate in 2020. My guess is that at the end of the day the party is not going to go off the left [wing] cliff. I think people are going to be looking for someone who is the antithesis of Donald Trump. Someone who can bring the country together, someone who has an appreciation for our institutions, someone who can bring relief from this primal scream that we have every day right now. But who it is is a mystery. I would only say that four and a half years before 2008, nobody knew who Barack Obama was. Watch the Conversation here: [( About Conversations with Bill Kristol. Conversations with Bill Kristol is an online interview program hosted by Weekly Standard editor at large Bill Kristol and produced by [The Foundation for Constitutional Government](. A forum for substantive, thought-provoking dialogue on pressing issues in the news and American politics, Conversations segments feature informal discussions between Kristol and guests on a diverse array of issues of public concern—from the American presidency and the Middle East peace process to the ideas that have shaped Western civilization. Recent guests include former world chess champion and human rights activist [Garry Kasparov]( Supreme Court Justices [Clarence Thomas]( and [Samuel Alito]( syndicated columnist [Charles Krauthammer]( former Vice President [Dick Cheney]( former Treasury Secretary [Larry Summers]( former Speaker of the House [Newt Gingrich]( business founder [Peter Thiel]( best-selling author [Ayaan Hirsi Ali]( former commander in Iraq and Afghanistan [General David Petraeus]( former U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff [General Jack Keane]( and Harvard professor [Harvey Mansfield](. New conversations are released bi-weekly. Users can access Conversations at [www.conversationswithbillkristol.org]( to watch all conversations free-of-charge, read guest biographies, download podcasts and transcripts, and view additional footage. About the Foundation for Constitutional Government. [The Foundation for Constitutional Government]( is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization devoted to supporting the serious study of politics and political philosophy, with particular attention to the Constitutional character of American government. The Foundation's online programming includes [Conversations with Bill Kristol,]( [Great Thinkers]( a comprehensive site devoted to political philosophers such as [John Locke]( and [Alexis de Tocqueville]( as well as websites devoted to important [Contemporary Thinkers]( such as [Harvey Mansfield]( [Irving Kristol]( and [James Q. Wilson](. Media contact: Andy Zwick 917-423-1422 AZwick@constitutionalgovt.org Copyright © 2017, MediaDC, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 1152 15th Street, NW Suite 200 Washington, DC 20005 [unsubscribe from this list](