Woodward: Biggest Concern Is Government Secrecy
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- It's not what’s known about government that should be of great concern to the American public. It's what isn't known.
That was the crux of journalist Bob Woodward's talk Thursday evening at Stambaugh Auditorium as part of Youngstown State University's Skeggs Lecture series. Woodward, associate editor of the Washington Post, spoke to a large audience, addressing such topics as presidential power, leadership and the ideological impasse that today plagues American politics.
"We should worry the most about secret government," Woodward said.
Eight years ago, the veteran reporter and author of 17 nonfiction books about government and politics, sat next to former Vice President Al Gore at a conference in Colorado, Woodward related. There, Woodward asked the question about how much the public knew and understood what went on during President Bill Clinton's administration while Gore served as his vice president.
"Gore said about 1%," Woodward remarked.
The comment spurred Woodward to work on books that put together a behind-the-scenes look at American politics and power, the latest being "The Price of Politics," an account of the negotiations between the Obama administration and Congress to raise the debt ceiling.
"There's so much that doesn't make the news," he told the audience.
Obama told Woodward during an hour-long interview for the book that the three weeks of negotiations to raise the debt limit were the most stressful period of his presidency, even more so than the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound.
As negotiations collapsed, one thing was clear -- that a lack of communication existed not only between Republicans and Democrats, but also between factions within each of these parties.
"It is a civil war within the Democratic Party as it is within the Republican Party," Woodward said. "There's no communication."
Woodward, who along with reporter Carl Bernstein helped break open the Watergate scandal in 1972 that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974, recalled that presidential power and politics has changed since the Nixon years.
What the Watergate tapes revealed, for example, was a president driven to use power for the purpose of hate and revenge. No president since, in Woodward's opinion, has exercised power in such a manner.
However, he does believe that presidential authority is today stronger than ever before. "It's an incredible concentration of power," he said. And, despite the rancor and "hyper-partisanship" that exists between the two political parties today, "there is not that venom," that existed in the Nixon White House.
And, Woodward admitted that he's still trying to figure out Obama.
"Who is he?" Woodward asked rhetorically. "He's a complex figure."
For his book, "Obama's Wars," Woodward asked the president about the 30,000-strong troop surge in Afghanistan and his feelings on war.
"He does not like war," Woodward concluded, pointing to the president's acceptance speech of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. In that speech, Obama declared, "war is an expression of human folly."
Woodward spoke for just over a half hour and then invited the audience to ask questions, which he addressed for another half-hour or so.
Earlier in the day, Woodward met with YSU journalism students for a question and answer session that lasted for about an hour.
He did not make himself available for questions from local reporters, but hosted a book-signing event after the lecture.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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