Lynne goes to the White House

I had barely been back for a few days since my trip to Columbia University during New York City's Education Week confab that attracted national and world leaders to convene on the topic of K-12 education (more on that later) when an email came advising that the Trotter Group, an organization of newspaper columnists, were invited to the White House to interview President Obama on a range of subjects.

Only 16 columnists would be allowed and I was number 16. How's that for serendipity. And so despite a suitcase still packed from NYC, despite a kid looking at me like I was derelict in some important duties and a husband rightly feeling we were ships passing in the night, I hopped on a plane to D.C.

I wrote this column, this editorial and this Ed Cetera blog post and this one based on my interviews with Obama. I've got a notebook full so stay tune. It goes without saying that the president didn't suddenly decide to connect with the media - contrary to his style of open, friendly dialogue he runs a tight ship with limited unrestricted contact with the media. But with the midterm elections just weeks ago, the White House has finally grasped its failure to communicate to the country the problems and how it was resolving them. Indeed, one of the things the president said to us during our hour long meeting was his regret that the public has seen the large numbers involved in stimulus spending but told little about why the spending was so high and what the goal of it was. Thus, the public anger over the last year, fostered not simply by the GOP but also the ascent of the Tea Party grew largely unchallenged by the White House. Not a good strategy. As this New York Times story predicts about Congressional races, the House, and maybe the Senate, is likely to go from Democratic to Republican on Obama's watch. It will be hard to sustain such political losses and argue credibly for a second term.