Going to be joining us in just a second. First, welcome, all the people out in live stream land. Well be taking your questions on hash tag politico breakfast. Tweet us, welcome to the others watching. Appreciative to the bank of america for making these conversations possible. We had a Great Partnership this year, including conventions, election night, and so were very, very excited to be ail to bring these substantive conversations about the most important issues driving washington to you, thanks to the bank of america. Thank you, john, and thank you to your colleagues. You may have gotten cards. Well be bringing you into the conversation, think about what youre going to ask. Without further adieu, well bring in bob woodward. Mr. Woodward . [applause] thank you. Saving seats with my notes. Ill pick those up. Which is your chair . You get the daddy chair. Okay, thank you, thank you. So the price of politics, which has become a best seller, as all your books do, looked at the last cliff negotiations over the previous grand bargain that didnt quite get over the finish line. What does that teach us about the current cliff negotiations . Well, its ground hog day. The question who is playing bill murray . I mean such a repetition. Its the same players at the same seats at the table with the same doctrines, and, so, you know, where this goes, i i think anyone who thinks they know is wrong. As you know, they talk about the fiscal cliff. Some people say its a slope. Somebody said it was a bungi jump. Somebody said it was a skate board trip, down and then up and so forth. Bottom line, i think, its no way to govern. It is a giant mistake to have all of this in a pool of ambiguity, and as i understand it now, you would know more. I mean, it truly is a stalemate. They are not talking. Now, you point out that its the same player, and, i think, youll agree player that is matter most are the president , speaker boehner. What do we know about the personal relationship that might illuminate whats going on right now . Well, they started out last year when they were working on the debt ceiling, and they had what are calledded the merlot and nicorettes meetings. In other words, boehner would have a merlot, and obama would chew nicorette. You point outside in the book somehow when they took the official photo, both of those vanished. Yes. They had iced tea there for obama. Of course, boehner had his seg represent, and they put the cigarette in the ashtray away for the picture, but they have not closed the deal on the personal relations, and thats a shame. I think if somebody, instead of sponsoring your breakfast and all, sponsor a weekly dinner between obama and boehner and everyone would agree to pay for it and let them just talk and get to know each other and see, you know, its how much oh, thats right. What do you think . I think thats a great idea. [inaudible] a special room. Im not sure [inaudible] yeah, okay, but, well, you know, but, i, you know, personal relationships, when john was the fbi spokensman, he was not helpful, but you could talk to him, get him on the phone, and if you had a good story, hed confirm it by laughing, a deep laugh meant you were on the right track. No laughter meant no. [laughter] now, it looks like the tide is very much going against republicans. Do you agree with that . Well, no. I think in the short political term, yes. Polling shows republicans will be blamed. Remember, this is the obama era. Its going to go down as his economy. I ask people who was speaker of the house during the Great Depression when roosevelt was president. Ill give a hundred dollars to anyone who can name who the speaker of the house was in the critical first hundred days jim over there would know. Henry thomas reigny. Now, theres a name in the history books. Point being, the speaker is an important player, this is significant, but it is obamas job to lead and define so if theres negative consequences here, particularly in the economy, its going to be in the obama era, things didnt get fixed. Who is it . The australian finance minister who says the United States is one budget deal away from being a great country. Theres a lot of people in business who think we are poised to do some really good things in the Global Economy, the United States is, but if we cant untangle this mess, its not going to happen. You know about the inner workings in the government more than any living person, every Single Administration of our lifetime. Youve been behind the scenes what nonsense youre talking. Yes, all right. [laughter] are you now optimistic or pessimistic about the way that australian finance minister posed the question . You know, in the end, i think things will be fixed. The question is when and what price do you pay on ray road to getting them fixed . You know, i dont think you govern by playing chicken. I say that to democrats, republicans, the white house, the congress. You know, they should sit down and really talk this out and the old joe biden way when he dealt with Mitch Mcconnell a couple years ago. Extend the bush tax cuts, in the white house, they called biden the mcconnell whisperer, and the horse whisperer, and the way, one for you, one for me, and thats the way you make a deal. This moment, look to you we have a deal by Christmas Eve, new years eve or over the cliff . Who knows. Somebody who thinks they know is only guessing. Maybe theres a strategy in the white house, you know, by a certain date theyll work it out. Play book, we always start the morning with the papers. We still love the print papers, assistant of the washington post, which, this morning, says fiscal warning yet to phase wall street. The stock markets are convinced that the fiscal drama is going to work out. The Financial Times has the opposite headline. They say wall street anxiety grows so which of these is more true . You know, [laughter] on wall street, they live in a zone of peaceful coexistence of optimism and pessimism. You can talk to somebody in the investment world in wall street, and in the morning, they are optimistic, and in the afternoon, they are pessimistic. I think one, you know, dont know, but both papers have great reporters in their talking to people about that, and so forth, and if you look i would go with the post in the short run because look what the markets have done. They have not sunk. Now, when you talk to people behind the scenes, after camera, tape recorder off, what do they tell you about whats likely to happen . I think theres a lot of real worry. I worry about what . Worrieded that we are not going to fix the, you know look, whats the bottom line here . The fiscal house of the United States government, the financial house, is not in order. Its in disarray. In a way that no one would permit in their business. Bank of america; right, john . They would never permit this kind of incoherence in what the policy is, what they are going to take in and what they will spend. Question about this topic, based on your reporting, what you learned, how far is the president willing to go on entitlement cuts . When i talked to the president in the summer on this, he acknowledged it was bad policy for he and democrats to cut medical beneficiaries. He then went on, and, you know, i think in the end, you cant be president and not be a realist, and he said that it is untanble to not cut them because they are driving the budget deficit, and, you know, the whole entitlement issues, the real core of the problem, the taxing issue, yes, the pyrotechnics, and its theres the struggle between the republican and democratic view, but all the numbers people know that its the entitlement issue so if theres a fix, trajectory to make it somehow stable, that would be thats the relation. Uhoh, you have something from the book. Your books are all ultimately about power, how its used, squandered, built, and so the sub text of the events that you write about is how life works, how washington works. My favorite sentence in the price of politics is, when you need friends, its too late to make them. What have you learned about washington and life from the grand bargain . What is the hundredyear lesson from how that unraveled . Well, you mean last year . What happened last year . Well, that they found a way to postpone everything, and, again, they can postpone lots of the problems, but postponement is the theme. The cliche, kicking the can down the road, i dont know what the can is, but it is postponing the hard decisions, and too bad. They should make them. They should make the hard decisions. I think if, you know, the hypothetical weekly dinner between the president and boehner, if that occurred or a weekly golf game. Its now weather, we can did we can go back to golf. That would be such a good and fruitful thing because, look, what, trying to write particularly about president s, you are driving at the question who is barack obama . You live in the world. Do you think we foulingly fully understand who barack obama . If anyone would, its you. No, im asking you. [laughter] of course, theres always something to cover. Is there elements or uncertainty of course, thats why hes fascinating to cover. Maybe in him, one of the things, i mean, you covered george w. Bush, i wrote four books on him. There was not a lot of mystery about what bush felt a gut player. Yes, yes, a gut player, and as he said, you know, his call see yum in the spine. Obama is an uncertain figure, and, quite frankly, when he writes his own autobiography about his time as president , and theres more excavation of all of this, were going to discover hes working it out as he plays the game, and somebody was a little more experience under their belt might not be doing that. Some of the comments made about president obama, incoming with what you said, used to be a sub text, that youre disappointed over overwhelmed . Not disappointed, but goes to the question of whats our job in the news media . Our job is not to be cheerleaders. Our job is to be, i mean, politico specializes in a 24 7 irritant, and not in a negative way, but you are asking and raising questions, and it is the job, and obama had look, whats the whats happened in the last many decades in the presidency . Increasing concentration of power. Theres the catastrophe in japan. In the United States, they immediately want to say whats the president doing . Whats he saying . Whats the policy . Whats the action. Thirty years august, that would be a question, but it would not be a central question. President s have the amazing what they can do. Obama has more power than bush had, for instance. Yet, i believe its your view we know less about our president s, less about the inner workings of the white house. Why is that . Is that our fault . Well, it is, in part, our fault, and the managers in the white house get better and better and more skillful, and that its a bearier barrier often, and god knows how much time i spent breaking down, breaking that log jam . T white house saying im doing this book, ive got stories, i got memos. I got these notes to answer questions. Its not something where they are standing there on pennsylvania avenue saying to the reporters, come on, were dying to have you hold us accountable for what we are doing. Now, you do manage to break people down, but what has the white house said, shutting bob down, whoever works for us would be fired, what would you do . Another book like john or Something Like that. You know, i dont know. I think that they, look, there is a sense in every white house whether they are misguided or not or on the right track, whether they are sincere. Our job is to listen, i think the key is to take them as seriously they take themselveses. Bush and obama have long memos saying this is what i want to talk about, they look at it, and say, my god, somebody worked a year on how im doing my job, of course, im going to respond. Very unusual technique. What did you say to president obama on politics . A dozen page meme toe saying these are the key points and what i understand happened, and much was new. Theyll look at that. I sent bush a 21page memo, and colleagues at the post said, you finally lost your mind. I love that. Because theres no evidence in bushs biography in years of yale and Harvard Business school that he ever read anything more than 21 pages, and that he read it right away. Rice said youre doing this book and the articles in the post no matter whether you talk to the president or not. I said, sure, and she said, hell see you tomorrow. Now, is what you do getting easier or more difficult . Thats a good question. No, its difficult because the message managers are better. You know, they have staffs, and they work at it aggressively. Im older. I have less energy. Tell us something about the Obama White House that we dont know. Oh. What does obama think of mitt romney . You know, what does he really think, and i think he feels that romney is incompetent because he didnt run a better campaign. I suspect a theme in the coverage of the campaign is going to be that romney never found a way, the message or the theme of how to run against obama where he thought it would be easy. What is the one thing you want to know about president obama that you dont . I did ask this, i didnt put it in the book, but he keeps a diary. Id like to have access. [laughter] assume that and he said, do you keep a diary . Yes, oh, not on all the detail kind of, and i, you know, come on, lets see it. So im sure there will be an interesting memoir. What did he tell you about the diary . That it existed. No detail. He didnt offer any of it or read from it or anything like that. Is it dictated . Is it written . Who, you know, reagan kept his diary secret. George w and now they published all of reagans diary ies. I mean, who would have thought . Certainly obama much more a sense of history and literature and writing from his own books and so forth which are very kind of address the question, whats the inner live i am living . Its interesting before he was president. Its really interesting now, and a description of the inner life will be something because its candid. Lets, you know, im going to put in a freedom of information act request for obamas diary. Maybe its done on government time, and maybe the diary, itself, is a gsa notebook or Something Like that, and so they cant exception, no, obviously, not going to get it, but i look for i worry what we dont know. Im sure its larger than what we do thankfully know about . About him, about what hes doing, whats driving him, whos barack obama . Last question about to get the hook, got the melt down over there. Quickly. You were talking about the president s a man of mystery. Youre a man of mystery yourself. Everyone in the room is fascinated by how you do, what you do, and one time you told me about how you reached a general who wouldnt take your call. Well, wouldnt take the call, wouldnt what was this for . Would not be interviewed, 5 key general on, i think, the fourth bush book, and radio silence so i dpownd out where he found out where he lived, and whats the perfect time to go visit a general at night . 8 15 because they would have eaten. If they are home, theres a couple extra hours there so i knocked on the door without an appointment, and he opened the door, and looked at me, and, can i quote him . He looked at me, and he said, are you still doing this shit . [laughter] bob, thank you so much, amazing treat. Thank you for your journalism. Thank you. [applause] thank you. Have a late night . Not really. Is bob still here . Yes. What would you like to ask senator rubio . Oh, come on. [laughter] are you still doing this shit . [laughter] no, a real question. Its a great chance. I decline. All right. Senator, you talked about a new direction for the Republican Party, and one of the things you talked about is education, and how to make Higher Education cheaper. How to reform programs. What would be the number one thing that you would do that you can do as a freshman minority senator . Well, i dont think theres a number one thing, but a number of number one things, and we have to do them all. As a 21st century student, doesnt look like it. Its not just an 18yearold that graduated high school. That still continues to be a significant part of the folks that are going into college, but its also the 38yearold who decided to go back to school to get a degree. That was my sisters experience. Its also the 25yearold after ten years after being out of high school is stuck in service jobs and deciding they want to empower themselves with new skills. The great news is that Technology Advances are going to not only lower the time and cost of getting that kind of skill acquisition, but will make it, you know, much more accessible, and with we have to ensure our student aid programs are not in the way of it. Right now, we have a student aid program, the pelle grants or the loan programs, they are credit institutions. They dont accredit courses. That, obviously, is weighed towards your traditional, fouryear, land grant universities. Nothing wrong with that. I went to the university of florida, a school thats going to crush the sugar bowl, but anyway [laughter] that doesnt get me points with Mitch Mcconnell, but what about folks who cant . They want online course here, a credit from this school here. Credit courses so were not discriminating against allowing people 20 to acquire setting. Reform pell pell grants and loan programs. Thats a bipartisan thing. The second thing i would do is have students have more information. Thats why i sponsored the right no know before you go act and this is how much you have to owe and if you want the philosophy major, thats fine. It doesnt paid, but youll owe 150,000. We have not heard republicans talking about this, and republicans need to stop being the stupid party. In what sense . I dont know about that. I think the principles a tested and proven, and applying those to the 21st century. We applied them, but now we have to apply them to the 21st century. We bring that experience. I graduated college with 150,000 in Student Loans between, you know, law school and undergrad. No other way to pay for it. It was a combination of pell grants, stafford loans, and Student Loans which i paid off with the proceeds of my book, which is a perfect holiday gift available on amazon. Com. [laughter] anyway, i i never would have been able to go to School Without that. Its simple. There was not pell grants or student loan programs, i would not be a college graduate. In the speech, you talkinged about how you talked about how fortunate to be where we a