Obama and Clinton's 'good rapport'

[Jennicut]

It is Politico but I liked the story anyway:


President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have developed a closer personal relationship despite their history of political rivalry, the New York Times reports Friday.

Clinton told the Times: "We've developed, I think, a very good rapport, really positive back and forth about everything you can imagine ... And we've had some interesting and even unusual experiences along the way."

That's a long way from where the relationship began, according to Vice President Biden: "Hillary would say to me, 'How do you think I should present this to the president?' ... And I'd say, Whoa, just present it to him. And Barack would say, 'Does she know what a good job I think she's doing?' I'd say, Just tell her."

The paper notes: "They now joke about their 'frenemies' status and have made gestures toward each other?s families. When Mr. Obama learned that Chelsea Clinton had become engaged, he turned to Mrs. Clinton and asked, 'Does she want a White House wedding?' a senior official recalled. (Mrs. Clinton declined, saying the offer was 'sweet' but would be 'inappropriate.') And when Mrs. Clinton traveled to Honolulu in January, she paid tribute to Mr. Obama?s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, in a speech she gave while looking over a garden dedicated to Ms. Dunham."
http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0310/special_relationship_122f4299-e150-41ae-af75-c73fddd91794.html
More about their alliance in the New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/us/politics/19policy.html?pagewanted=1

Funny how things work out.

[BeyondGeography]

1. These are good people; two grown-ups who think big

A riveting story, from beginning to whenever it ends. I doubt we'll see another one quite like it again in our lifetimes.

[tridim]

2. I hope Jane Hampsher and her followers get a chance to read this.

[Botany]

3. grown ups back in charge

n/t

[mopinko]

4. barack has huge emotional intelligence.

that is one thing i liked about him right away.

[ShortnFiery]

6. Yes, he's self satiated, but scientists have not concurred on the standards that should measure

"emotional intelligence."

For example, people such as Ted Bundy and cut-throat CEOs of large corporations are also IN CONTROL of their emotions. In fact, they show ZERO levels of neurosis on a number of personality scales. Do these measures, in and of themselves, equate to "emotional intelligence?" Then we'd have to consider that tough-guy characters such as Chuck Norris are also emotional intellects of the "genius" variety? :shrug:

[CBR]

7. Oh Jesus... nt

[ShortnFiery]

8. He hasn't weighed in on this topic and my specialty was Physiology.

;)

[Jennicut]

9. So Barack Obama is like Ted Bundy? Hmmm, I never thought about that one.

:wow:

The hyperbole never fails to astound me.

Ask a psych major, I would say plenty of people that you think have it all under control clearly are faking it.

[ShortnFiery]

11. Nice hyperbole. NO, but I was using two extremes: a socially-acceptable CEO and ...

a serial murder. They both would be considered on neurotic measures to be 100% mentally sound. One is (the CEO) but the other is NOT.

All I'm saying is that people who are "in control" of their emotions demonstrate a positive social skill, but that does not necessarily go to character nor their capacity of empathy for "the other."

p.s. I have a masters in Physiological Psychology. However, I've also worked within the Social Science side of the field as a Survey Researcher and Addiction Counselor.

[Jennicut]

14. I remember talking to you about psych and politics before.

I think some politicians lack control over other areas of their lives so they go into politics. Some, but not all. Also, I suffer from depression and is probably why I went into the psychology field to begin with. I have really good control over it now after being on different meds for 10 years but even in the beginning I could keep it hidden from those that did not know me well. Many people in the public eye can do that. The outside persona is nothing like the inside persona. With a few people, what you see is what you get. But it makes me curious...
I would say Obama and Clinton seemed to have patched up their differences now that they must work together but one never really knows how they actually feel about each other. I would hope that neither are petty enough to carry on a dislike after the election was over but politicians can be petty types.

[ShortnFiery]

15. Well considered thoughts.

Yes, I concur with your perspective above. I'm admittedly prejudiced by my profound disappointment in the way President Obama treats the views of us unabashed liberals. I'm not embarrassed to permit my emotion to enter into my perspectives. I hope those who admire "self control" in emotion hesitate to deify our President on that one characteristic.

Why? I fear that he's a corporatist and our country will continue to slouch toward full economic fascism IF we DON'T force him to do the right actions for "the people."

Because he's a politician, I have faith that we can get him to do the truly populist actions and also end these occupations. But that task will NOT be easy.

I'm trying my best not to dislike our President but no, I'm not enamored by his personality since he has chosen to escalate our Afghanistan involvement. It ruins the mood in fallible people such as myself, i.e., I'm anything but self-satiated. :blush:

Have a nice weekend.

[Cha]

19. Petty types..like

john mccain and sarah palin.

[mopinko]

16. once again

ignore proves its worth.

[Cha]

20. In gold!

[ShortnFiery]

5. self-delete

[Beacool]

10. That's nice to hear.

I still think that Hillary should have been president and then Obama, but that's life.......

Thanks for the article, Jenni.

:pals:

[Jennicut]

17. Your welcome.

I thought it was both funny and cute that they had to use Biden as the go-between at first. "Just tell her!" :)

[Beacool]

21. Biden was the perfect person to be the intermediary.

He gets along with Obama and he's been friends with Hillary for years.

:hi:

[CBR]

12. Two adults... thank goodness we have them both. nt

[DevonRex]

13. We are well and truly blessed by this team. Barack, Hillary, and Joe

are just exceptional people and it's good to know they enjoy each other's company. And it's really cool that Barack asked if Chelsea would like a WH wedding. I kind of wish they had said yes after all the cruelty that Chelsea had to endure when she lived there.

[Cha]

18. It is funny how things can work out

if people have open minds and open hearts..I'm all emotional just reading this and knowing what all we've been through to get to this stage of history.

Absolutely astonishing!