Transcripts For KQED Frontline 20121027

His extended family is one of the leading mormon families. He cant talk about it because it involves polygamy. Controversy. Hes the first Nobel Peace Prize winner with a kill list. Mitt romney doesnt have an ideological bone in his body, as far as i can tell. And destiny. What unites both of these characters is this sense that there was a place that they were going, a destiny that they had. Tonight ofrontline, the choice 2012. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major funding is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. Additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. And by the frontline journalism fund. In massachusetts, in a political fight that ted kennedy probably never imagined. Kennedys seventh campaign has become a desperate struggle for survival. This year he in his toughest race ever against a political newcomer. Its youth versus age, the senates leading liberal against a wildly successful Venture Capitalist. We get a call from the boston police. And they say, its a mad scene down here. chanting we want ted narrator it was the night of their first debate. Were going to have to get you an escort to get into the building. They had eight or ten Motorcycle Police officers there to guide us through the mobs of people at the site. Narrator it was 47yearold mitt romneys First Campaign. And mitt just has this big smile on his face, and he looks at me and goes, boy, however this turns out, this really makes it worth it. Narrator the race had been close. Romney needed a great performance. I dont think he had any idea what it was going to be like, because he had never done debates under that pressure. Narrator hed gotten into the race because kennedy looked weak, beatable. At the time ted kennedy seemed vulnerable. It was a weak period for kennedy. He looked bad, he sounded bad, and in that way he was vulnerable. Narrator he was dramatically overweight. There had been trouble with alcohol and women. Hed mortgaged his house to stay in the race. Romney was everything ted kennedy was not. You know, he had this clean family life. He was a really good speaker. He was really athletic and he had a good kind of campaign visage. People knew that he had gone to Harvard Business school, had made a lot of money, been a registered independent up until not too long before he ran. He ran as a liberaltomoderate politician. He opposed Newt Gingrichs contract with america. He supported abortion rights. He said he was to the left of ted kennedy on gay rights. The expectation was that romney would do very well. Mitt romney, the republican candidate. I ran into someone who was not so friendly to us who said, did you come to see your guy destroyed . I paced in the back of faneuil hall during the entire debate. Good evening and welcome. Narrator romney directly confronted edward kennedy. Senator kennedy, my impression has been that you have followed a campaign, as soon as the primary was over, of trying to divert the voters attention from the issues at hand, and instead making personal attacks on me which are unfounded, unfair and sleazy. Narrator kennedy had unleashed negative tv ads. Romney. Its not just what he did to his workers and business thats the problem. Its what he might do to us in the senate. Kennedy was a master politician and what he did was he used a series of filmed ads to its maximal effect. Mitt romney says he helped create 10,000 jobs. The former workers at scm in marion, indiana, Say Something else. Id like to say to the people of massachusetts, if you think it cant happen to you, think again, because we thought it wouldnt happen here either. I want to know why you spent millions of dollars showing advertisements of strikers in a company i had nothing to do with. Narrator but kennedy, the veteran, ignored romneys charge. Mr. Romney, lets put the ads aside and talk about health care. Lets talk about education. Lets talk about training. Lets talk about new jobs. Lets talk about infrastructure. Lets talk about our different vision for massachusetts. Thats what the people of massachusetts want to talk about. And thats what i think they ought to hear about. I think about 10 or 15 minutes in, romney began to realize this was not the easy exercise he thought it was going to be. Narrator then romney faltered. The issue was health care. I have a plan. I have a position paper on health care. Im happy to show it to you, senator, any time youd like. Mr. Romney, it isnt a question of showing me your paper. Its a question of showing all of the people in here that are watching this program the paper. They ought to have an opportunity to know. What is the cost of your program . I dont have a cost of my program. You dont have a cost . No, im sorry, i dont have. What would be the impact of that on the budget . Well, the impact, i do not know the specific number. So you dont have a cost. The impact of that on the budget, senator kennedy. And i think its a wonderful idea to take it through, piece by piece, and. Thats what you do as a legislator. Thats exactly what you have to do as a legislator. applause and cheering we all sort of understood what had happened that night. The debate was watched by over three million people, as many people as watched a super bowl in massachusetts. Romney had these expectations that he was going to win up to here. And suddenly kennedy is up to here, romneys here. The race is over. applause after you lose to ted kennedy, Everything Else comes up short. You have learned from that, you have been through the storm. Youve served time on the front lines. History is a great teacher. He may have lost but he acquired mitt doesnt like to lose so. It was very painful for him. It was, i believe, probably the first public failure he had ever experienced, and i think at a deep level that was a painful experience for him. choir singing gospel music narrator the year is 2000. The place is chicagos south side. For nearly a decade, barack obama had been working to make this neighborhood his home. For the last three years, hed been a state senator, but he was growing impatient. He had his eye on a congressional seat. He wants to do something bigger. Hes got a pretty big ego, right. He believes in himself, believes hes bigger than the illinois senate. You know, he convinces himself its a really good idea to take on one of the lions of the black chicago democratic establishment. Narrator it was the legendary incumbent congressman and former black Panther Bobby rush. Bobby rush has real strong roots in the community. Bobby rush was, you know, a panther. Then he matured as a congressman into a guy that took that toughness and broadly applied that. So bobby rush had very real strength in the community. Narrator even after having lived here for years, obama was vulnerable to a charge bobby rush would surely make he didnt really know these streets, and hes not really an africanamerican. Bobby rush called him an educated fool, again trying to sort of cast obama as this overeducated halfwhite guy from hawaii with this multicultural background. He was not one of us. You can have more degrees than a thermometer, but if you aint got some power, you aint got some seniority, if you aint got what it takes to be a congressman. Thats always been a subtext of the opposition to him from other black politicians. How dedicated is he to the black struggle . Despite all our differences, we can live together as one people. Theres a long article about the race in tchicago reader, the local alternative paper in chicago, where one of obamas opponents, he says, obama is viewed as the white man in blackface in our community. It got bad. It was real bad. A number of black nationalists in the africanamerican community, you know, made all sorts of allegations about barack being a tool of, you know, hyde park and the university of chicago, which are both code words for both whites and jews. Narrator bobby rushs strategy worked. On election day, the voters embraced the incumbent. Obama knew what was going to happen. In the end, voters decided to stick with bobby rush by a huge, huge, huge margin. So it was a very bruising loss for him. Narrator obama lost by 30 points. It was the first time in his life where people didnt just really accept him immediately, where things didnt really go perfectly for him. Narrator the loss seemed like it might be the end of obamas political career. People who saw him afterward say he was as low as theyve ever seen him. One person who was close to him said he got the sense that senator obama really wondered if he would be able to continue in politics. Narrator and it raised real problems with his wife michelle. The bobby rush race was the nadir of the obama marriage. Her feeling was, why are you doing this . This is the moment when they want two totally different things. You know, barack obama wants political success, and his wife wants a normal life. I asked the president and first lady how long it had taken them to recover from that period, and they said two to three years. So this is a serious toll on their relationship. Narrator for mitt romney, growing up in this affluent suburban detroit neighborhood was just about perfect. Mitt romney did have this rather elite upbringing. A very wealthy community. He is, you know, very well taken care of. Narrator mitt was the youngest of four children. These are people who just adored their children. And you could see that mitt and his dad had a very special bond. The dad stuff just cant be underestimated. George romney comes up again and again and again as a motif in mitt romneys life. Narrator at home, George Romney ruled the roost. His children lived in his reflected glory. When he walked in the room, you knew he was there. He had a lot of, a lot of power to him, and it was, he was a lot of fun. I mean, he was our hero. Narrator george had made a fortune in the Auto Industry the oldfashioned way he earned it. George romney was, in many ways, a figure from another time. Whats more fitting than that detroit. Narrator at a time when the american car was king. Should hold the Worlds Largest automobile show . Narrator George Romney was president of the fourth largest automobile manufacturer in the nation. His great triumph was to come up with an idea that all of the big Detroit Companies had missed, which was that a small car could sell. Narrator they called the car the rambler, and to young mitt, it was swell. Whats the best car on the road . Rambler they built a little gokart together and they did things together. Just doing fun things and having a great time. Narrator just down the street was mitts school. Cranbrook, a school where the young are nurtured on beauty. Narrator it was one of michigans most exclusive private schools. You had to wear a coat and tie, except on fridays. We were very fortunate to have a beautiful surroundings, but the real focus was academic. Narrator mitt wasnt much for the academics. The School Yearbook shows where he put his energy. Romney at cranbrook was a belonger. He wasnt a good athlete, but he was the manager of the hockey team, he was on the Cross Country team, he was a cheerleader. He was very active in everything he could be. He was part of the place very deeply. Narrator during that time, mitts dad decided to leave business and head into politics. Michigan was a powerful democratic stronghold, but George Romney had a maverick streak. He ran as a liberaltomoderate republican. And mitt watched as he won. Michigan can light the authentic path to a fuller and higher expression of freedom in america. Thank you very much. crowd cheers its a little bit striking how involved he is in georges Political Activities from a fairly young age. Narrator his dad thought civil rights were worth fighting for. As a teenager, mitt was less interested in the issues than being with his dad. The word from his family is that he was not necessarily interested in politics as ideology. But there was always something about his father and his fathers power and his fathers profession that kept him around and kept him close in a way that it didnt do that for other members of his family. newsreel music plays the eyes of the nation are on San Francisco as the Republican Party convenes to nominate its choice for president. Narrator and in 1964, mitt traveled with his dad to watch him take on conservative republican senator barry goldwater. The Republican Party should unequivocally repudiate extremists of the right and the left, and reject their efforts to infiltrate or attach themselves to our party or its candidates. Mitt is absorbing all of this. He sees his father basically taking a stand and admires his father greatly for this. Narrator but it was Barry Goldwaters convention. I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. crowd cheers narrator and when goldwater received the nomination, mitt saw his father angrily storm out. I think that my father was always willing to live according to his principles. He didnt shy away from any challenge. He was a very strong person in doing that. And we learned that you have to live up to what you believe in. Narrator one thing George Romney believed in was the vietnam war. And one year later, when mitt showed up at stanford university, he would adopt his fathers position. So, he is very much on his fathers side for the vietnam war at that time. He is really out of his element where the whole campus is being roiled by this antiwar and antiestablishment protest. Narrator mitt took on the protestors. Mitt romney is a fairly rulebound person. He actually protested the protestors. He held up a big sign that said, go back to your studies. And we see the mitt romney who cares about rules and institutions and following orders. And that causes him to take a very dim view, i think, of the protest movement. hawaiian music plays welcome to paradise. Narrator barack obama began his life on an island. Our sunfilled, funfilled, 50th state. Narrator his birth certificate reveals his history born in hawaii, the son of an african man and a white 18year old from kansas. Stanley ann dunham was really a thoroughly unconventional mother in almost every way. She fell in love with and conceived a child with an african man at a time when nearly two dozen states had laws against interracial marriage. Narrator he would not see his son for ten years. Barry obama had a pretty unsettling childhood. I mean, he didnt ow his father. His mother was very loving and protective, but she was also finding herself. Basically, he and she grew up together. She then became involved with an indonesian and married him and had a child with him. So she had two biracial children from different cultures who she raised largely by herself. Narrator they lived in jakarta. He was now called barry soetoro. His stepfather lolo was troubled. Hes drinking quite a lot. Theres evidence of at least one act of Domestic Violence against her. Narrator stanley ann taught english. While she worked, barry had to learn how to cope. Imagine what it would be like at age six to be thrown into the chaotic, swirling environment of a dense neighborhood in jakarta, indonesia, not knowing the language, not knowing anything, looking a little different. He had to fend for himself. Every step along the way, there was some aspect, deep aspect of him where he was alone. Narrator then, when he was ten, his mother sent him to hawaii to live with his grandparents. I think its natural to assume that your father be absent, then form a relationship with your stepfather, and then be separated from him and be separated from your mother and go live with your grandparents who at that point you dont really know that well. It must have been profoundly unsettling. His early life is a constant stream of people leaving, of him being left. His mother, his father, his grandparents constantly moving. His whole life is really a, sort of a classic search for home. Narrator they lived in a small twobedroom highrise apartment in honolulu. His grandfather was a heavy drinker. What surprised me as i was researching my book was actually the president himself telling me that his grandmother was an alcoholic, too. Narrator but barry had gotten lucky. Hawaiis most Prestigious School needed students with diverse backgrounds. I can picture him as this slightly, not. Chubby is too strong, but rounded, short little guy, barry obama. And he told us that his father was an indonesian king and that he was a prince. And after he finished school he was going to go back and he would be a ruler in indonesia. And i absolutely believed him. I understand that he told his fifthgrade class that he was kenyan royalty. But i never heard that story until, you know, years later. Narrator at punahou, they prided themselves on multicultural attitudes, and barry joined in. But it wasnt always easy. The junior tennis tournaments in hawaii, when the draw was posted, everyone would go over to see, okay, who do i play in the first round . Where am i in the draw . And we were all looking for our names on the draw, and barry included. And the tennis pro came over and he said to barry, dont touch that, youll get it dirty. And there was something in his tone that horrified me, because it wasnt. It was clear that he didnt mean, oh, your hands are grubby, which he would have ragged at any of us for that. It was clear that he meant, youre black. It stopped me in my tracks. And it made me more aware of a certain ugliness, i guess, that i hadnt really felt or lived with before. Narrator being half black was adding to the complications of young barrys life. Here he was half black, half white, living with white grandparents. Many of his friends assumed that they were his parents who had adopted him, because theyre white, hes black. A lot of friends never knew his mother. Honestly, i dont have any recollection of barrys biological mother. It just seemed to be like a missing person, for me, and i never asked about it. Narrator his mother had been absent for much of his childhood. Hed met his father only once, for a few weeks, when he was ten. Barack has had to deal with dueling identities all of his life, nurtured by a white family and identifying with that family, but at the same time, when hes out, when he goes out, hes identified as Something Else. And he has had to make sense of that duality his entire life. Narrator alone and unsure of how to fit in, barry created a family of his own, a group of kids from school. They called themselves the choom gang. Tom topolinski was one of them. Choom was the slang for smoke marijuana. Somehow it reached our group and became an identifier as who we were. We were the choom gang. Bill clinton, you know, famously said he didnt inhale. Obama, on the other hand, not only inhaled but was sort of the ringleader of the idea of total absorption, what they call ta, where you had to make sure that everything got inhaled. Take roof hits while youre in the car. I think it was important to barry because perhaps it did fill a void that wasnt apparent at the time. I dont think any of us thought of it that way, but now in retrospect, we look back and went, hey, we really were a family. This was really, really cool. Narrator obamas senior yearbook tells the story. In his yearbook he thanks gramps and toot, who are stan and madeline, his grandparents, and the choom gang, and ray for the good times. Who was their drug dealer. Who was kind of a hippie who could get them the good stuff. And he doesnt thank his mother. Narrator by the time he graduated from punahou, obama had decided to leave hawaii. One of the central themes that i find from his life is his intense desire to avoid being trapped. His mother had that. She didnt want to be trapped in a life that she didnt want in honolulu. She left for indonesia. And he had it threefold. And throughout his life he was constantly trying to figure out the traps. Narrator in 1966, the Mormon Church called mitt romney at the end of his freshman year at stanford. It was time to become a Mormon Missionary. You are sort of sent out on your own in very difficult circumstances to sort of prove your stuff. Can you make it . Narrator mitt, like most mormon young men, had to leave home for a rigorous rite of passage. And that means standing up for your faith under very adverse circumstances. It means working hard when you have many reasons to be discouraged, when people are not paying attention to you. Narrator for mitt romney, service to the Mormon Church had a special meaning. The Romney Family traced their roots back to the churchs earliest days. Not only were his parents very prominent, his family, back to the days of brigham young, was very prominent. His extended family is one of the leading mormon families. Narrator mitts great grandfather miles was an early Church Leader who had established a colony in mexico. The romneys had left the United States and went to mexico to avoid persecution, but its also to pursue polygamy. Narrator miles romney had five wives and 30 children. They built a ranch and hes back in stone age conditions with no money. Romneys father is now on the scene. That gets destroyed by guerrillas. They move back to california, poverty again. They build it back up. They move back to Salt Lake City. They build it back up. Romneys whole history of a family is that they knocked us down, we built it back up. We didnt make a fortune; we made a bunch of fortunes. And they resented us for our success, but we kept coming back. Thats romneys history. With someone with a name with romney you heard about the sufferings of your ancestors and their sacrifices and all theyve done that you feel like, well, its my turn now; ive got to pick up the baton and run with it. Narrator but mitt and his family rarely tell the story to outsiders. Its an incredible history. He cant talk about it because it involves polygamy. And so if the core of your personality is something you cant talk about because its politically unacceptable, well, youre not going to be open with the people all around you. Narrator now the church was sending mitt away to spend two and half years on a mission in france. As mitt romney has said, imagine going to bordeaux and saying to people, ive got a great new religion for you and, by the way, give up your wine. Narrator the task to put on a suit and tie, and climb on your bicycle. The tried and true and wellworn method was knocking on doors. And so we knocked on thousands and thousands and thousands of doors. The Mormon Mission does teach you to deal with rejection. Most people are not thrilled to see a pair of Mormon Missionaries on their door. Narrator rejection was at the heart of the experience. And it means cultivating your own inner spiritual life. Where else are you going to get the resources and the strength to carry on this difficult work of knocking on peoples doors and pleading with them to listen to you unless you feel like god is with you . Narrator and during that time, mitt was worried about the news from home. His father was running for president. We would get a hold of the herald tribuand kind of keep up on what was happening. Narrator the news was not good. Georges campaign was in trouble. He had changed his position on the vietnam war. Well, you know when i came back from vietnam, i just had the greatest brainwashing that anybody can get. By the generals . When you go over to vietnam. Well not only by the generals, but also by the diplomatic corps over there. I no longer believe that it was necessary for us to get involved in south vietnam. Narrator romneys opponent was richard nixon. The press jumped on the word brainwashed. The story caught fire. But this blew up. It conjured images frthe manchurian candidate, and he gets criticized from all angles. And the gap between him and nixon widens pretty dramatically. Narrator back in france, mitt watched as his fathers president ial campaign cratered. It was a disappointment when his dad had a sudden dropoff. He would say, yeah, its too bad. My dads such a great guy. Why would he get punished for saying what was true . Mitt couldnt help but be informed by that, and i think he tries to be more careful with his words. And mitt has clearly learned from what damaged his fathers successful run. Narrator then a brush with death. Mitt romney is driving. They are coming around a curve in this small, remote town. There are six people in the car. He went around the bend and he saw that there was, at a high rate of speed, another person coming right towards him. And the car was estimated to be going, i think, some 70 miles an hour. One of the policemen who had shown up as the first responder, if you will, had actually written in his passport, il est mortwhich means he is dead. Mitt woke up in a ward, and he didnt know where he was. And then for a period of time, he didnt have any feeling in one side of his face. Narrator he had survived, but the wife of the Mission President , sitting right next to him, was killed. You have to understand the Mission President was like the surrogate father there. His wife, the surrogate mother, the mission mother. And she was, to many of us, a mother there. And so it was an awful loss for us that she was killed. Narrator in the wake of the tragedy, mitt showed surprising resilience. I think part of that is because of our faith. A deep conviction that this isnt the end of all life; its just the end of mortal life. That theres purpose beyond this life. And that sister anderson now had gone on, and would be involved in great work going on on the other side of the veil. That our job now was to make a success of what she had been there for and what she had nurtured us for. Narrator the mission in paris was leaderless. Someone needed to turn it around, pull it all together. Mitt took over. He immediately starts kind of establishing himself as a leader within the church because theres a vacuum. Narrator those closest to him say the experience had changed him. He made a commitment to himself to work as hard. And i think part of that comes from that experience of going overseas and seeing other people, and having lifethreatening experiences and deciding that youre going towhat youre going to make out of your life. And he decided he wanted to make the most he could out of his life, and worked as hard as he possibly could to do that. Narrator by the early 1980s, barry obama had left hawaii and his grandparents behind. Now he was on the mainland, in los angeles, at occidental college. They called it oxy. He was the most casual, unpretentious, nicest guy. I mean, my indelible image of him was always in a hawaiian shirt, and some op shorts and flipflops. I dont know that he had a long pair of pants during college. Narrator hed come to oxy with an attitude straight from hawaii cool head, main thing a laidback sensibility that didnt wear well with everyone. For the first time there are africanamericans there, not in enormous number, but enough that there is. There is the kids from compton, from philadelphia, from la, from seattle. He was a white black kid, you know. And that has meaning for us in the sense of he was black in skin color but he didnt necessarily identify with being, with his blackness with same way i did. They didnt think he was one of them. Sort of a repetitive theme in his life after that. Is he black enough . Yes. There was some pushback from certain individuals that werent, again, as openminded to the world, who, no matter you were. And so people were trying to figure out who barack was, at the same time that he was trying to figure out who he was. Narrator obama began to try to build another group like the choom gang, this time with a core group of foreign students. I didnt at that time consider him a stereotypical or fit any of the image of any kind of american, neither the whites nor the blacks. I didnt consider him american. He seemed like an international individual. He would reach out and bring people together. And you know we had our close african friends here, close israeli friends here. There was an italian guy, a french guy, a serbian guy, the pakistani guy. There was in fact a couple of french people, i forget her name, perhaps kathleen. There was a swiss girl. There was an indian guy, vinay. It was he and a couple of others. My roommate was latino. I mean, it was awesome. It was a cultural soup that really tasted good for everyone, you know, and he was in the center of it. Narrator eventually, he took an important step. I asked, you know, barry obama. What kind of name is that for a brother . You know, where are you from exactly . And he said, well, im from hawaii, but my father was kenyan. And his name was barack obama. And i go by barry so that i dont have to explain my name all the time, and go into a long explanation of myself. And so i said, well, if your name is barack obama, im going to call you barack obama because i like that name. Narrator in the schools literary magazine, barry now identified himself as barack obama. I think the word barack is absolutely essential to that identity of being, i am a man. I am a man with a future. I need to be prepared for whatever that is going to be. I dont know the answers yet. But i sure as heck know i wont get there if i hang out and take things for granted and just be kind of a smart guy. Narrator but barack was restless at occidental. He decided it was time to leave. He would transfer to Columbia University in new york city. One day he told me he was transferring to columbia. He had, i think, a need for a more expansive environment, more stimulating urban environment to grow intellectually. So that was his choice. He needed to actually physically leave and fly across the country and start again at this much more rigorous school to be barack obama, the promising young scholar intellectual that would grow up to be president. Narrator barack obama came east to engage the world, especially the black world. He started by moving to the edge of harlem. If we wanted things to be harder for ourselves, we succeeded wonderfully. It was kind of a gritty neighborhood. The apartment next door to us on the third floor was burned out and stayed that way the whole time that we lived there. We had, like, five locks on the door, including one of those bars that you put in after youve gone inside the apartment. Narrator a couple of friends from the oxy days joined him. I think it was complete intimidation by new york city, which seemed rougher and tougher and uncivilized than any other place either of us had lived. And both of us were probably questioning, why the heck did i come to this place . It was scary and we had no resources. Well, new york to me is the key to his life. Its the period where he does the least, but figures out the most. Narrator to find a connection to the black community, obama headed out into harlem and all over the city. But it turned out to be harder than obama imagined. He told me this when i interviewed him in the white house. He made no lasting africanamerican friends during those four years in new york. Narrator no choom gang, the inner circle was much smaller. The new york years are marked by this kind of turning inward. He spends time reading, fasting, wandering the city. Theres this almost monklike existence. Narrator as he walked the streets, friends say he was affected by the poverty all around him. I saw a transformation in the barry i had met in occidental. He got very serious and less lighthearted and our conversations were more about serious things, wouldnt want to go around the bar, have a drink, was worried about poor people, didnt care about getting rich. I mean, thats my opinion of dull at that time. There is one great letter where he describes how all of his choom gang friends are sort of getting into the mainstream and his pakistani friends are all moving toward the business world. And to him all of that seems too small, too categorized, too limiting. Caught without a class, a structure, or tradition to support me, in a sense the choice to take a different path is made for me. The only way to assuage my feelings of isolation are to absorb all the traditions, classes; make them mine, me theirs. And, hes trying to say, where do i fit . For me to exist, i have to be larger than it. I have to embrace it all, make it all mine. He writes that. And i think in that simple sentence you see everything about who he wanted to be and what he needed. He didnt want to be limited. He comes from a multicultural background, experience of indonesia and pakistan and california, new york. An experience to the different cultures that we had. I think what hes doing at that time that i knew him, was trying to say, lets unite around what we share, not whats different about us. Narrator obama had discovered something important about himself, something that would help shape the rest of his life. What obama has figured out by the time he leaves new york is that it is possible for him to be in a black community, while maintaining that larger sensibility of being a product of the world and open to the diversity, the vast diversity of this country and of the world. They dont have to be in conflict, he doesnt have to choose between one or the other. He has figured his way to get both. Narrator when he was 23, he took a job in chicago as a Community Organizer. Blacks, whites, hispanics, jews, gentiles. Narrator obama arrived in chicago after the election of the citys first black mayor, Harold Washington. Have joined hands to form a new democratic coalition. applause and cheers i think that the fact that chicago had elected an africanamerican mayor in Harold Washington sort of emphasized with barack that he was coming to a city where blacks were a major presence and had some significance. Narrator washingtons politics were a living example of what obama was looking for. What washington was able to do was to put together these coalitions africanamericans, latinos and progressive whites. And he was able to pull that together and beat the machine. God bless you all and thank you from the bottom of my heart. And that kind of Coalition Building was incredibly influential for barack. Narrator obamas laboratory would be the citys south side. We had put an ad in a number of newspapers for a Community Organizer in the south side of chicago. Im looking for anybody who might be a good organizer, but i particularly need somebody whos africanamerican. And obama at that period of time, he is not sure he is black. For the guys that are hiring him, you know, youll do just fine. people singing gospel music narrator but not everyone on the south side of chicago embraced the ivy league graduate. He had to work with a lot of different Church Leaders who werent necessarily receptive to this young guy who came from the ivy league and did not have chicago roots. You know, chicagos a town that says, we dont want nobody that nobody sent. Well, barack was somebody that nobody sent. And so both local politicians and local pastors, sometimes who can act like politicians, were threatened by barack. Those pastors would use anything. I mean, he was called a pawn of jews and catholics, certainly an outsider. This whole issue of, you know, is he black enough, you know, began to arise. Narrator with mixed success, he tried to build coalitions for three years. But he had become frustrated. He wrote about it in a letter to a friend. Its tough. Lots of driving, lots of hours on the phone trying to break through lethargy, lots of dull meetings. Lots of frustration. At that point, he begins thinking about, is there some other way to do the same job that im trying to do . Which is lift people out of poverty. Narrator he decided to move on, this time to law school. He said to some of his Community Organizing buddies, he needed that credential, that harvard law degree, to access the corridors of power. Narrator christmastime in 1968, mitt romney returned to detroit from his Mormon Mission. His mother and father were waiting at the airport, and so was his high school girlfriend, ann davies. Ann is at the airport with his family. Now remember, when mitt romney was in france, ann davies had grown very close to romneys family. His father george had actually converted her to mormonism. So, in some ways the family knew ann better than mitt did. Narrator theyd met when she was a high school sophomore, 15 years old. He was an 18yearold senior. At mitts senior prom, they promised to get married. And i was so young. And, after three and a half years, i started wondering, you know, how was i going to feel . Or how do i really even still feel . I dont know. I hadnt seen him or been with him for such a long time. Narrator they sat together on the jump seat in the back of mitts sisters car. And it was just the two of us in the back seat. And it was such an amazing car ride home, because we both said, weve waited so long. Why should we wait any longer . Lets just get married now, like now. And it was a bit of a shock to everyone. They didnt anyone quite think that was a great idea, including my parents. But thats how we felt. It was really kind of amazing. Narrator the wedding was held three months later. He was 22, she was 19. According to mormon doctrine, ann and mitt were now bound forever, into eternity. It seems like as fabled in romance as weve ever seen, that they fell in love at first sight at 15, and thats quite marvelous. So, of course, thats a relationship you want to sustain for all eternity, and mormonism promises that. You are already sealed as a unit for on into the eternities. Narrator they began to raise a family, and by the time mitt was 24, he headed for a graduate school his dad had wanted to attend. One of georges ambitions in life when he was a young man was to go to Harvard Business school. And george never ended up doing that, didnt graduate college. Narrator mitt romney arrived on the harvard campus at just the moment a new, radical approach to business was being taught. He was at Harvard Business school at the time of a real revolution sweeping through this place that the American Industrial corporation was kind of deeply diseased and troubled, in a way that was threatening the entire welfare of the nation. They hated the clubbiness that executives had with each other. They thought that personal relationships, the kind of golf course buddybuddiness was what made companies slow and kind of insular and not open to new ideas. Narrator it was a departure from the way romneys father had done business. Its not you go to work for a company and rise through the ranks. Thats what its not. Instead, its you kind of parachute into a situation and the whole concept is, youre going to see things that the people who have been running the company for generations just cant see, thats going to double the value of the company. So thats a pretty powerful set of ideas. Narrator and this man, bill bain, had created a Consulting Company designed to ride the new wave. He offered mitt a top job. Mitt gets a call to say, hey, why dont you come to this new Consulting Group called bain . And hes really excited about the idea. Narrator from the beginning, mitt proved himself adept at consulting. And then a bigger idea creating an investment fund. This guy, he looked perfect, he dressed perfect, he spoke perfectly, he asked the most poignant questions in a very, very nice way. Narrator mitt helped make tom stemberg rich. Back in 1986, stemberg had a big idea. Staples was this big new idea to open a new kind of store. Prior to staples, you had to go to a stationery store, to a business machine store, to a computer store, to a Software Store to a supermarket to get all the things that staples put under one roof. Narrator it was one of romneys first big deals running bains new private equity fund. Stemberg wanted 2. 5 million to open his first stores. Mitt was a hard sell. Mitt felt a lot of pressure. He was under an inordinate amount of pressure. There would be times where mitt would sort of jokingly sit and flap his tie like, oh, man, this thing better work out. They say that he almost had trouble coming to decisions on his own, that he always wanted the data to be so compelling that everybody in the room would simply agree. Narrator he finally decided staples looked like a sure thing. And he was right. They made Something Like six or seven times their money on that investment. It was one of the things that allowed bain capital to grow to the very significant firm its become today. Narrator and romney moved bain into a lucrative new field leveraged buyouts. The gold rush was on. The people who were either smart enough or lucky enough to enter that space when romney did, all did fabulously well. It was just a great, you know, it was kind of being in the right place at the right time. We sold calumet coach, made a terrific profit. We made 35 times our money on a 1 million investment. We sold accuride. We made 24 times our money on a 2. 5 million investment. There was one deal that was very profitable that basically was turned around and flipped in about seven weeks. This deal, one of romneys partners said this was like being hit by the, quote, lucky stick. Another deal in which he invested 50 million in the yellow Pages Company in italy and got back a billion dollars, this partner said that was like being thrashed, unquote, by the lucky stick. Narrator mitt and his team memorialized their early success with a photograph. These folks think that they went like a giant tidal wave through the American Economy and essentially saved it by kicking out all of these goodfornothing ceos and making companies, once again, economically efficient and productive. These folks think theyre heroes and they saved america. And the public thinks they are villains and their whole job is to enrich themselves and destroy jobs. Narrator the aftermath of some of the leveraged buyout deals was devastating bankruptcies, factory closures, employees laid off. Bain capital was never set up to be a job creation program. It was set up to make wealthy investors even wealthier. They didnt sit around the table talking about how many jobs this would create. Oftentimes it was the opposite, how many jobs could be cut to make the company more efficient. Mitt is a person who wants to be successful. Making money is how youre measured in the private equity and Venture Capital business, but youre making money for your investors first and foremost, and that was always mitts focus was to make money for them. Narrator the way those closest to him tell it, he had come to see himself as a white knight. He could fix almost anything. There is something sort of messianic about the culture of private equity. Theres this internal sense of were the people who are disciplined and smart and we know how to make things work. He goes through life recreating this drama where he steps in and saves the situation, saves the day. He likes that idea of theres a crisis that nobody but me can fix, and then he goes in and fixes it. Narrator by 1988, barack obama was a law student at harvard. Were all precious. Were all precious. In gods sight. In gods sight. Narrator at the time, harvard was a hotbed of political activism. The political environment on the Law School Campus in the late 80s and early 90s was borderline toxic. No more racism no more racism no more sexism no more sexism Harvard Law School was a place of big contending ideas, big arguments, among the faculty, among the students. Everyone was organized. Everyone argued, everyone fought over things. Narrator in the superheated racial disputes, obama maneuvered to become the middle man, a conciliator. And i remember him sauntering up to the front and not giving us a lecture but engaging us in a conversation. He was clearly someone who was so open to alternative viewpoints and so capable of empathizing with people of all stripes that it certainly didnt surprise me that he was able to build bridges across those divides. Narrator and at the prestigious harvard law review, obamas bridge building had won over many of the publications conservative members. The people on the right really liked barack. Even if at the end of the day he disagreed, they thought that he treated them with respect and they thought that many of the liberal and left students did not. Ive worked at the Supreme Court, ive worked at the white house, ive been in washington now for almost 20 years, and the bitterest politics ive ever seen in terms of it getting personal and nasty was on the harvard law review. Narrator Brad Berenson was a member of the conservative federalist society. One day, he and his associates would help run the bush administration. The conservatives on the harvard Law School Campus at that time were severely outnumbered. Narrator inside the toxic environment of the law review, obamas affinity for the politically conservative students surprised his black associates. I dont know why at the time he was able to communicate so well with them, even spend social time with them, which was not something i would ever have done. Narrator no africanamerican had ever been president of the law review. In his second year, obama won the job. Although im honored and i think people can say that my election symbolizes some progress, at least within the small confines of the legal community, i think its real important to keep the focus on the broader world out there and see that for a lot of kids, the doors that have been opened to me arent open to them. Narrator the africanamerican editors were ecstatic. I think a lot of the minority editors on the review expected him to use his discretion to the maximum extent possible to empower them. There was an expectation on the part of his more progressive colleagues at the law review that he would side with them on issues. Barack was reluctant to do that. Its not that he was out of sympathy with their views, but his first and foremost goal, it always seemed to me, was to put out a firstrate publication. And he was not going to let politics or ideology get in the way of doing that. Narrator only one africanamerican student received a top editors job. Conservative members were given three. The whole slate was taking over. I was kind of hoping to get a masthead position, and i did not get a masthead position. I was hurt. I think was. I would call it very hurt. And i told him so. I mean, certainly, he was aware of how i felt. Narrator as the president of the law review, obama could have clerked for a Supreme Court justice or taken a high paying job at a Corporate Law firm. He wanted to make a difference. It was clear that he was there with a kind of burning sense of obligation and ambition. Narrator but obama had Something Else in mind. Hed return to chicago to write a book, to teach law and eventually run for office. And there was another reason to return to chicago. Two years earlier, he had interned at a big law firm. We always assign a Junior Lawyer to keep an eye and be sort of a mentor. We assigned a young lawyer named michelle robinson. And one night my wife jo and i went to the movies. We ran into barack and michelle at the movies. And i think they were a little embarrassed. You werent supposed to be dating the summer interns. But they fell in love at our firm. Narrator she had also graduated from Harvard Law School. Chicago was her hometown. She comes from a middleclass working family with working family values and Strong Church values. She went to Public School and she and my daughter were classmates, they were friends, and so she has roots there. Barack is very smart and very intellectual, but in michelle, he found a partner who was able to ground him personally in ways that he hadnt been previously. And that has been profoundly important. Narrator and michelle provided something he had never had a home and stability. For him to feel comfortable in himself he had to find michelle and had to find his place in a black family, and thats what she represented. He can feel comfort in the home that he finds with michelle and in the south side of chicago and yet, he can still use that, what he always will have, which is that transcendent crosscultural sensibility of someone who came up in both worlds. That makes Everything Else possible from then on. Narrator in 1982, the Mormon Church again called mitt romney into service. Like his father, who had also been a church official, he would be ordained as a bishop, in massachusetts. Bishops are chosen out of the congregation. There has to be a record of Willing Service over a long period of time, and you have to have certain moral and spiritual qualities. Narrator he would spend 20 to 30 hours each week helping other mormons handle their most personal problems debt, sickness, unwanted pregnancies and failing marriages. The responsibility to helping them resolve their difficulties and recommit to each other falls on the shoulders of the bishop. Narrator at first, Bishop Romney was viewed by some as inflexible, what mormons call an iron rodder. Some people describe him as being very much out of that hidebound tradition where hes telling women that they cannot have an abortion, hes telling single women to give up their children for adoption, because the Mormon Church does not encourage single parenthood, that hes resistant to calls for changes within the church for more liberal policies, especially toward women. Narrator but as time wore on, hed been intimately introduced to real people in reallife crisis for the first time. Romney thawed a bit. The experience that more or less every Mormon Bishop has at getting so involved with peoples lives, with their financial struggles, or their, behind happy faces, sometimes marital struggles or crises of faith. I remember him a time or two shaking his head, saying, i had little idea that people live like this. Narrator during those years, romney seems to have strengthened his belief that neighbors, not just government, should help those who are struggling. Whether consciously or not, youre really socialized to think, as a mormon, these functions, these kind of welfare state functions, are not government functions. They are functions to be done by the voluntary sector. Its this sort of tocquevillian idea that, you know, people take care of each other at the community level. This isnt what the Central Government does for people. Narrator romney served four years as a bishop and many more as a senior mormon leader. Then he decided to turn to politics. The reason mormons do get interested in Public Service comes out of a sense that we have a mission. Narrator for romney and other mormons, america holds a special place. I think romney has a deep commitment to the United States and to the americas, because mormons do believe its a holy land and honor the constitution as coming from god. We believe that the United States of america is that place that had to be free so that god could bring truth back to earth. And we revere it for that purpose. And joseph smith even alluded to the United States constitution being. Its framers being inspired, the constitution as an inspired document, not quite scripture but somewhere in that league. Narrator some mormons say mitts political ambition may be connected to his faith. The kingdom of god is to be built on earth, and we all are to take part in doing that. So when somebody says. Somebody does something really remarkable, someone may remark, its an act of consecration in building the kingdom on earth. And mitt may very well see the presidency as part of that, and it would certainly be a great accomplishment in building the kingdom on earth. Narrator back in 1994, when he had failed against ted kennedy, his chances of becoming president seemed remote. But five years later, in 1999, he saw another opportunity to be in the public eye. With scandals swirling around the Salt Lake City olympics of 2002. Several members were bribed for their votes. Narrator a bribery scandal threatened the salt lake winter olympics. Growing scandal is turning into a goldplated disaster. Narrator in Salt Lake City, the home of the Mormon Church, they needed help. The payoffs have become a part of the games, and salt lake got caught. The story here always was that we were looking for a white knight to come riding in and save the olympics. And a lot of people saw that in mitt romney. Narrator romney knew this might be a chance to serve his church. Strongly urging the appointment of romney. Narrator and raise his profile nationally. Question of whether to close the deal with mitt romney. Narrator but there was a problem ann was sick, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She told me that over the holidays they had all been out at their house in utah, and that she was so. Felt so powerless because she couldnt get out of bed. I knew there was something seriously wrong with me. I was very fatigued, and i was in bed a lot, really in bed most of the time. I just couldnt really take care of myself, even. He was worried about my mothers heath. And he wanted to stay in boston, where they had a doctor and a plan set up. And my mom said, no, this is important. You need to go back and do this. Ill find some treatment out there. As of today, theres a new head of the salt lake olympic committee. Boston millionaire mitt romney. Narrator by february 1999, it was official romney would take charge. Mitt romney, who has the olympian task of cleaning up the salt lake games. These games and the preparation leading up to these games will be held at the highest level of ethical conduct. There is no possible excuse for compromise of principal. Narrator he used his Business School playbook slashed costs, fired the deadwood, raised money from corporate sponsors. The money came pouring in. Mitts experience as a missionary, and then throughout his career of knocking on doors and approaching people and asking for things, even at bain and company, hed had a lot of experience in that, and mitt used all of that accumulated experience from his life at the olympics. Narrator and things were looking up for ann. It wasnt like all of a sudden i was better. It took years. It literally took years for me to regain my balance and to regain some of my strength. But i knew was slowly inching my way to being a little stronger. Narrator and as opening day approached, the cameras were rolling as ann, with mitt running in the background, carried the torch into Salt Lake City. When she went to utah, she was hardly able to walk; she was very tired. The thought of her running a quarter mile would have been unthinkable. You thought, well, maybe shes going to be okay after all. It was just a great feeling for all of us. crowd cheering narrator the turnaround was complete. The stage was set for mitt romneys political career. You have this redemption of sorts, where he is a National Figure again. Hes standing with the president , and i think that would of course pay huge dividends not long after. The delegates are trickling into boston. 35,000 people are expected to descend on boston. The convention is being held in the heart of the city. Narrator by 2004, barack obama was back in boston. In the years since law school, hed become a state senator and had had that failed run against bobby rush. The buzz was there was this upandcoming young state senator from illinois. Most people probably couldnt pronounce his name. Narrator now he was running for the u. S. Senate in illinois and was the keynote speaker at the 2004 democratic convention. The next senator from the state of illinois, barack obama crowd cheering narrator he was virtually unknown. But he had, in effect, been writing the speech since punahou, and oxy, and those long years in new york city. Tonight is a particular honor for me because, lets face it, my presence on this stage is pretty unlikely. My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in kenya. He put himself in the middle of the american story and he made people feel that there was still an america that could come together despite all of the divisions, and that in some way or another he was able to embody those aspirations about what americans thought they wanted to see happen in the country. There is not a liberal america and a conservative america, there is the United States of america. There is not a black america, a white america, a latino america, an asian america, theres the United States of america. Michelle sees this happening. And she has tears streaming down her cheeks. Im sitting in the crowd, and a woman next to me is crying, bawling her eyes out. She just keeps screaming, this is history. This is history. Thank you very much, everybody, god bless you. Thank you. This guys going places its amazing. Hes still a state senator in illinois. I mean, he is not a United States senator yet. I understood immediately that things had changed. And all around were people with tears in their eyes. And i realized at that moment that his life would never be the same, that he had just taken a leap forward. Forget uniters and dividers, tonight we heard from a transcender. He lit it up. People talked about him quite openly as the first black president of the United States. Obama is expected to be thrown into the limelight. He can barely show his face in public without creating some kind of sensation. Narrator by january 2005, barack obama was a United States senator on the rise. He came to the senate almost immediately with everyones high expectations, with everyones assumption that this was a man who was on a fast track. Narrator but for obama, life as a legislator in congress was not what he had in mind. As soon as he gets to the u. S. Senate, hes bored. He is pretty open about the fact that the senate is too slow and its a place where you basically have to spend several terms before you have any power and influence. Obama was never going to be the kind of guy who, you know, ends up in a wheelchair on the senate floor. Narrator after only a year in the senate, he started asking the question that had been asked ever since the boston speech should he run for president . We went to my favorite restaurant and took the Kitchen Table in the back where nobody could see us. I tell him he should do it and that he shouldnt assume, if he passes up this window, that there will be another because the longer hes in washington, the more history he has. And the more history he has, the more hes going to be explaining his votes and his actions and his statements and his positions that undermine his message. We can finally bring the change we need to washington. We are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction. The American People are looking for change in america. Fired up ready to go fired up narrator obama promised he could bridge the partisanship that divided washington. I think there is a part of barack obama that believes that if he simply sat down with people, he could work things out. He thought he could sit down with republicans, and if we simply close the doors and hash it out, we can walk out of here with a deal that everybody could be happy with. Narrator but not everyone believed bipartisanship would be so easy. We believed, in the clinton campaign, that polarization is inevitable given the kind of campaigns that the republicans wage, and given the history that weve experienced. Now i could stand up here and say, lets just get everybody together, lets get unified, the sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing. And everyone will know we should do the right thing, and the world will be perfect. Maybe ive just lived a little long, but i have no illusions about how hard this is going to be. You are not going to wave a magic wand have the special interests disappear. crowd cheering narrator but 2008 was not Hillary Clintons year or john mccains. Barack obama is projected to be the next president. Senator barack obama of illinois will be the next president. Barack obama will be the 44th president of the United States. Barack obama, 47 years old, will become the president of the United States. That night when he came out, the look on his face to me looked like someone who finally understood the weight of the job that he had just won. Narrator but that night, obama must have believed the bipartisan change he had promised was now within sight. Americans sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and always will be, the United States of america. You have, in obamas case, gone within four years from being an Illinois State politician to the most famous person on earth, and you have confidence in both your judgment about whats the right way to go and your ability to make it that way. America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what weve already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow. If he was too confident about being able to bring people together, one can understand, given the way hed spent the previous four years. This is our moment. Yes we can. Thank you, god bless you, and may god bless the United States of america. crowd cheering crowd chanting yes we can mitt romney, fresh from running the winter olympics. Narrator just three weeks after the olympics ended in march of 2002. Announced that hes running for the gop nomination for governor. Narrator . Mitt romney was back in massachusetts. Republicans said romney emerged as a kind of shining knight. Lest there be any doubt, im in. The bumper stickers have been printed, the web site is going up tomorrow morning, the campaign papers are filed today. Narrator it had been 40 years since his dad had run for governor. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. It sort of mirrored what his dad had done. His dad had become a successful executive in American Business and then served in Public Service as governor. So there was definitely a parallel there. Narrator the romney playbooks first step create a plan. It was clear that to be successful in massachusetts, you had to run as a socially liberal, fiscally conservative republican. Prochoice, but concerned about spending. Narrator romney applied his Business Training to massachusetts politics. I really think that he is a product of a world where you do Market Research to find out whats working, whats not working. You do controlled experiments. And then you dovetail your product to suit the marketplace. Hes looked at what the market wants and hes looked at what niche there is. Im someone who is moderate, and my views are progressive. When he was running for the governorship, a question came up about how he felt about abortion, what his fundamental convictions were on the issue of abortion. And theyre going to vote for me regardless of the party label. And i spoke to one of his Close Friends at the time who was also a political aide who sat down with mitt and said, all right, lets talk it through. What do you really believe . And he said that he found that mitt romney was unable to consider the question in the abstract, that mitt romney dealt with it as a managerial problem, dealt with it as a case study. Its tough to say what he believes. Im not sure exactly what he believes on social issues, even though i was closely involved in the campaign. Mitt romney was certainly comfortable being a liberal on social issues in 2002 if it was going to help him win. And thats clearly what it would take in massachusetts to win. Narrator as election day loomed, romney went oneonone with his opponent Shannon Obrien in a televised debate. It was close. Shannon was up with about a week to go. And then they had the last debate, and it was over at suffolk law. Narrator obrien attacked, directly questioning romneys prochoice position. Ted kennedy said it best mitt romney isnt prochoice, hes not antichoice, hes multiple choice. I was very blunt in saying to him that i didnt think he was telling the truth about his position on choice. Hed been prochoice when he ran against ted kennedy. Hed been prochoice when he ran against me. In the middle, while he was at the olympics, he didnt want a label. I will preserve and protect a womans right to choose, and your effort to continue to try and create fear and deception here is unbecoming. Its an issue thats important. Ive established my view very clearly. He basically attacked me and said i was, quote, unbecoming for having questioned his veracity, that i was questioning his integrity. I will preserve and protect a womans right to choose, and im devoted and dedicated to honoring my word in that regard. Narrator romneys performance was decisive. The voters were convinced. And he won that debate, and he got tremendous momentum. The next governor of massachusetts, mitt romney narrator on november 5, 2002, romney was elected governor of massachusetts. He was 55 years old, the same age his father had been when he was elected governor of michigan. Mitt romney, the 70th governor of the commonwealth of massachusetts. And he wasted no time getting down to business. Narrator as governor, mitt romney hit the wall. The state legislature was dominated by the democrats. You could argue that he didnt run the state government, because he couldnt run the state government, because he didnt have the votes of support, and therefore that he was a republican island in a democratic sea. Narrator romney wasnt one of the boys a political backslapper didnt engage with the legislature on a personal basis. And coming from corporate america, that kind of compounded the problem. He truly didnt have an understanding of how valuable the political personal component of the business would be as he went forward with implementing the political rhetoric into political policy. Narrator romney issued more than 800 vetoes. Almost all of them were overridden by the legislature. The governor came in as an outsider, four years later he left as an outsider. He knew that he wasnt going to make a lifetime or a career out of being governor. Narrator romney had his eyes on an even bigger prize the presidency. Its a little bit like a consulting engagement. You go in, you figure out what the problems are. You fix things. You make things better organized and make them work better, and then you go on to the next challenge. Narrator but if he wanted to run for president , romney knew hed need what the political pros called a legacy issue. And as it turned out, the massachusetts democrats were wrestling with one he found appealing health care. He says his ticket to National Office is going to be health care. He decided to try and take ownership of that issue from the democrats. Narrator romney employed the familiar bain method. He called together a smart team to crunch the numbers. Im a professor of economics at mit, and i helped governor romney develop the Massachusetts Health care reform, or romneycare. Narrator Jonathan Gruber sat with romney and carefully outlined the problem. Romney was in Management Consultant mode. Like, here is a problem. Sort of engineering almost mode. Narrator romney heard the bad news. The state of massachusetts, which he is governor of, is bleeding red ink because people dont have Health Insurance and they are driving up costs for everyone else, and taxpayers are paying for it. Narrator the uninsured were bankrupting the government. But gruber had a solution all residents should be required to buy insurance. He called it the individual mandate Jonathan Gruber says, if you dont do the mandate, youll cover x amount of people for x amount of cost. If you do do the mandate, you will cover this many more people, and it will be cheaper. Narrator the mandate was an idea first proposed by the conservative heritage foundation. This is a very conservative idea. Lets put the onus on individuals, responsibility. I think he felt strongly the moral case for the mandate. My job was just to see if the numbers added up, and i think he was excited they did. Bain Management Consultant says, this is a nobrainier. You have to do the mandate. It is cheaper per person and everyone gets covered. His political people were actually opposed. I mean, basically the meeting largely consisted of him arguing with his political advisors. His political advisors were saying, we dont think this is such a smart thing to do. And romney is saying, no, check this out. I can do this. Isnt this neat . I can make this work. Narrator now romney, the ceo, had to work with the hostile democrats in the legislature. He made an unusual move. About 8 20 in the morning, i had just gotten through reading the papers, im getting ready to go to church, and the bell rings, and its governor romney. I was surprised, to say the least. Not the type of person i was expecting in my neighborhood. Narrator romney pled for cooperation. The stakes were high. That was a pretty profound moment for me. It isnt every day you get the governor to come to your house and give you the upup and try to encourage you to put aside your differences. And we sat and we chatted and we talked for about five minutes, and off he went. Kidded with him. I said, you know how to get home . You know how to get out of this neighborhood . Narrator the democrats were in. There was one other hurdle money from washington. The best way to get federal dollars to flow to massachusetts was to reach out to his former rival ted kennedy. Look, i wouldnt describe romney and senator kennedy as friends. But they were friendly during that period in the sense that they had a cordial relationship trying to get something done. Narrator and together they squeezed nearly 400 million out of the bush administration. On april 12, 2006, romneys health care legislation, romneycare, finally became law. Massachusetts became the first state in the nation to have near universal health care. They devise this epic signing ceremony at faneuil hall in boston. And there is a fife and drum corps. Narrator it was in this same place that kennedy had destroyed young mitt romney in their first debate. Of course, the last time i was on this stage with senator kennedy. crowd laughing this for me feels a bit like the titanic returning to visit the iceberg. Narrator it was mitt relaxed, relieved. My son said that having senator kennedy and me together, like this, on this stage, behind the same piece of landmark legislation, will help slow global warming. crowd laughing thats because hell has frozen over. Narrator senator kennedy, never one to be upstaged, joined in the fun. My son said something too, and that is when kennedy and romney support a piece of legislation, usually one of them hasnt read it. crowd laughing cheering but thats not true today, is it, governor . Ted kennedy give a speech cheering on this new law. Romney signs the bill with 14 different pens that he hands out to everyone there. Its a big celebration. In a sense, its the kickoff to romneys president ial campaign. Narrator romney believed he now had what he needed the achievement that would help him win the ultimate prize the presidency. Its the Inauguration Day of the nations first africanamerican president. Hundreds of thousands of people already. Narrator january 20, 2009. I, Barack Hussein obama, do solemnly swear. Narrator barack obama inherited a country on the brink. Stunning crowd of people that converged on the nations. Our economy is badly weakened. Narrator an economy in collapse. Greed and irresponsibility on the part of some. Narrator he kept saying the problems were big enough, and his win historic enough, that everyone in washington would join together to fix the country. He spoke of no less than remaking america. He got to washington and he became president , i think, still clinging to this view that the polarization in american politics could be overcome. This is the biggest inaugural of all time. Youre going to be hearing a lot of superlatives today, but i think it is almost impossible to be too hyperbolic. Narrator to the new president , it seemed like an historic opportunity. President obama did not have a full sense of what washington was going to be like for him. He had not been in the middle of these kind of down and dirty fights, the ugly reality of governing in washington today. The president walked into the presidency with an expectation that he would be able to reach across the aisle, that republicans and democrats alike would be willing to come to the table and address these issues that were a significant problem and needed to be addressed if we were going to move the country forward. Narrator and obama believed he had a big issue that could unite democrats and Republicans Health care reform. We were sitting in the oval office and we were sort of having a debate around health care at one point, and the president said, its about health care, but its not really about health care. Its also about proving whether we can still solve big problems in this country. And this was going to be the test case for that. Narrator and it was also personal. There was also this desire to achieve something great. People said that his greatest accomplishment was his own rise. Bobby rush in that 2000 race would say, whats he ever really done . And there was the sense that health care. Barack obama just wanted it to be his legacy. Everybody loves the idea of Health Care Reform. This is a huge issue the president is taking on now. The question is, could Health Care Reform really happen . Narrator he had been in office only six weeks. He wanted to prove bipartisanship could work. He gathered in one room at one time all sides in the debate. Theyre talking about lawmakers, doctors, nurses, hospitals. Bringing together lawmakers and interest groups. Cabinet officials, members of congress, the White House Team conferring on how to overhaul health care. Many of these players for years, if not decades, had a record of opposing any sort of Health Care Reform efforts. And what a remarkable achievement that would be. Something that democrats and republicans, business and labor, consumer groups and providers, all of us could share extraordinary pride in finally dealing with something that has been vexing us for so long. I think the president s intentions were to try and forge a bipartisan coalition, and was willing to give it some time to get that done. So lets get to work. Thank you. Narrator behind closed doors, obama believed he had a plan that was both bipartisan and practical. It was based on republican governor mitt romneys plan in massachusetts romneycare. They even brought in romneys expert. Obama gets elected, and on his Health Advising team is a number of my friends who were now on the obama team saying, look, we have an opportunity to do what we were unable to do under clinton and get this done. Narrator there was one problem obama had campaigned against the heritage foundations mandate. To his credit, he gets a lot of people, including myself, telling him, look, you cannot make this work without the mandate. And he says, okay, lets do the mandate. And his advisors say, this might not be the right thing to do. And he says, you know, this is what the experts are telling me needs to be done. Lets make this happen. Narrator but he chose to let Congress Take the lead. Soon the republicans and democrats began to squabble. He didnt carry a big stick. He wasnt like, lbj, of course, because he hadnt sort of come up through the ranks of the senate. But it didnt seem like he had any leverage or any ability to bring people along. Narrator the president s political style didnt help. Hes not the person whos going to be the backslapper. Hes not an armtwister. He has people who work with him who are able to do aspects of the role of engagement that he doesnt necessarily. That he doesnt necessarily find a value in himself engaging in. He is not the type of person that can, you know, invite boehner and the republicans to dinner at the white house every night and schmooze them like lbj or clinton could. Thats not him. He doesnt even want to do that. So he has this grander vision of what he is and what the world should be, but that doesnt mean he can bring other people along with him to that place, because he doesnt have that personality. Narrator meanwhile, there was a furious public reaction. Barack obama was electable because he was not too black. Obama lying to the people, deceiving the people. The election of obama will be a giant step backward in race relations. Narrator and that summer, anger only grew. That he was more carlton banks than suge knight. Narrator over Health Care Reform. Rammed it down americas throat. Narrator . The economy, the bank bailouts, and the president himself. If you call half the country racist, whats that going to do for your fundraising . This was all about barack obama himself. I thought he was probably born in this country. Now i have a much bigger doubt. He came up so quickly as a candidate that people did not think that they had a time to fully vet him or find out who he was. There was all this chatter on the side, who is barack obama . This president has a deep seated hatred for white people or white culture. The country is more polarized than ever. Obama just accentuates that instead of bringing it together. One of the greatest scams in the history of politics and in the history of. Obama represents to a lot of people a future that they dont. That scares them. One aspect of it is the death panels. You want to kill my grandparents, you come through me first god will take care of health care. You dirty thieves we cant afford it afroleninism anger by the summer of 09 had reached a boiling point. Radical communists and socialists there was a polarizing quality about barack obama that kind of came roaring forward once he became president. Baby killer abortion is murder . And became much more obvious to people with the rise of the tea party and the battles over health care. There is an ugliness with these fringe people who are comparing the president to hitler. He gets the full force of the tea Party Backlash and the conspiracy theories just pummeling him and turning him into a partisan in a way that he hadnt experienced before in his life. I think that must be difficult for him to sort of reconcile with who he knows he is. Narrator with public opposition to Health Care Reform mounting and republican resistance stiffening, it was becoming clear there was no hope for a bipartisan bill. The choice was to do nothing or to do something with the tools you had and the majority that you had. He chose to do that. Narrator obama had to abandon his hopes for bipartisanship. Very quickly, barack obama learns that its not going to work out the way he thought it was. You could not, at the same time, be a powerful, uncompromising liberal champion at the same time you are, you know, reach across the aisle and building bridges with conservatives and the center. You cant mix and match these things in a way that people hoped he could. But first, down to the wire on Health Care Reform. The house votes just hours from now. Narrator it took months, but on sunday, march 21, 2010. It is a 15minute vote. Narrator . The house took the final vote on Health Care Reform. On this vote, the yeas are 219, the nays are 212. The motion is adopted. The 216th vote comes over, a big cheer erupts. Its 219 to 212. No votes from republicans. All democrats, no republicans. Not a single republican in the house or the senate voted for the Health Care Bill. Its a huge piece of legislation, and it is extremely unusual. When any of the other major programs were passed, signed into law, they were ultimately done with both democrat and republican votes. Narrar it was victory, but not the victory the president wanted, and not the change he had promised. It came at a high price, the entire first year basically dedicated to this, having their hopes for bipartisanship dashed. It was done on a party line vote. And it caused great disruption to the bipartisanship thats necessary to get things done. It left a very sour taste in the mouth of republicans. And everything after that also became essentially a party line issue. Obama is learning, like every new president does, that a lot of his theories about politics and government were just wrong. Being president is about understanding the constraints and frankly, working the system rather than changing the system. When he talked about changing washington, he was overlooking some very important underlying Political Trends that no president can actually change. Another president ial contender is back to join the race for president. Is america ready to elect a mormon president . Americans may not know his name, but. Narrator only one month after he left the governorship of massachusetts, mitt romney traveled to michigan to the automobile museum. Also known for his stewardship of the 2002 Salt Lake City olympic games. With the fine people of michigan in front of me, and with my sweetheart at my side, i declare my intention to run for president of the United States. Narrator with this announcement, he had completed or exceeded every one of his fathers milestones. I love america and i believe in the people of america. Narrator but romneys political ambition had yielded a candidate decidedly more conservative than his father. That was a very different mitt romney. He said that he had been convinced that he should now be antiabortion. He tried to woo over social conservatives and evangelicals. I believe in the sanctity of human life. I believe that people and their elected representatives should make the laws, not unelected judges. One of his advisors actually told me this last year, that in the 2007 2008 campaign, their theory was the shelf space that was his phrase the shelf space in the republican primaries was on the right. Thats where he fit in. I believe that Homeland Security begins with securing our borders. And i believe. He went to where the market was, and he became the product he was selling. And that, on the one hand, its sort of effective. On the other hand, its sort of disquieting, because you think, well, who is he . What would he be as president . Does he believe anything . And these are the open questions that plague everybody who watches him. God bless the United States of america. Thank you. Narrator the selling of the new, more conservative mitt romney began months earlier, in boston. Shortly after he passed the Health Care Measure in massachusetts in 2006, he took a walk across boston common, and he and his aides went to the top of the Ritz Carlton Hotel there. Narrator gathered at the hotel were a group of top iowa republicans. I was impressed with him from the standpoint that i thought he understood big issues. But there were some things that still bothered me, and i wanted to talk to him about those things. Narrator Douglas Gross is a republican power broker in iowa. In that key primary state, gross can be pivotal. I was seated right next to him. He was at the head of the table. We had a very fine dinner. Ann was seated directly across from me. And i brought up the three ms. Narrator the three ms mormon, massachusetts, multimillionaire. I brought up the mormonism first, and it didnt cause a problem for me, but for a lot of evangelical christians, particularly in iowa, they didnt consider mormonism even christianity, so they had a difficulty with it. He sort of dismissed that as an issue, really clearly didnt want to talk about it. So then i went to the next one. And the next one was money. How are you going to connect to the average person . Were sitting up here, youre very wealthy, your hair is perfect, your shirt is starched. Mitt just simply refused to talk about it. He looked at me quizzically and dismissed it. Ann obviously felt i was insulting her husband and indicated that i was by asking that question. And the rest of the people in the room were sort of taken aback and shocked. Ann left the room and didnt join us for the rest of the evening meal. Narrator it was their first exposure to iowa straight talk. It wouldnt be their last. In iowa, they have this old phrase that when you stick a pig, it squeals. And i think i hit. I hit a sensitive spot. Today, iowans make the first decision. Battles between two former governors. Iowa packs a big political punch. Narrator from the outset, romney had to explain his flipflop on abortion. Of course, coming from massachusetts was not a big plus for a lot of folks. One significant issue that mitt had a change of heart on, and that was abortion. Narrator his prolife declaration had begun in an oped piece in the boston globe. He laid out what his views were on the subject of life, and he concluded that he was firmly prolife. He genuinely changed his position on abortion. Whether that was for political expediency, as his critics would say, or out of real conviction, as he says, in a sense it didnt matter in that First Campaign because it was seen by so many people as a political conversion, not a conviction conversion. And you can go up on youtube and see the governor, where he is on this position. In the business world, you can go from company to company, business to business. You can advertise yourself in a new way anytime you want. You can rebrand yourself and it doesnt make a difference because the only thing that matters is if the company is profitable or not. 1994, sam. Look, i was prochoice. I am prolife. And im tired of a. And it is a truthful position. In politics, its a little bit different. You do that too many times, and people start to not understand what is at your core. I get tired of people who are holierthanthou because theyve been prolife longer than i have. Narrator he had changed his rhetoric on gun rights, gay rights, Climate Change and the tax pledge. He lost in iowa, New Hampshire and florida. Just one month into the primaries, romneys campaign was over. I entered this race because i love america. I feel i have to now stand aside for our party and for our country. Narrator romney had fallen short, unable to secure the president ial nomination. crowd chanting mitt mitt the mitt romney in 2008 was partly a politician and very much a business person and totally a novice to what it meant to be a national candidate. Narrator he had spent 45 million of his own money on the campaign. On the plane back to boston, following his announcement, he turned to me and he said, eric, what are you going to do . Weve got to figure out what our people are going to do. Theyre going to be moving on into other jobs. This was not a person who was thinking about running again for president. I think he felt he had his opportunity and the door had closed to him. Its a whole new political world for the president. Narrator november, 2010. An historic election for the Republican Party. Narrator the president s party suffered a significant midterm defeat. Now the republicans back in power in the house of representatives. Democrats are nursing a major midterm hangover. Tuesdays election was a game changer. It was really one of the first times when the country had a chance to register their opposition to obama, and boy did they. Repudiation of the president and his policies. No sense in sugar coating last nights election results. Voters send a message to barack obama. And that, i think, came as a surprise to this person who thought that people pretty much loved him. The gop gaining at least 58 seats. Narrator many of the democrats who had taken what they call a hard vote to support obamas Health Care Bill had lost. I think he understood that the glordays were over, that the moment of celebration of barack obama was passed and he was heading into a much tougher more trenchant period of his presidency when everything was going to be difficult, when everything was going to be more challenging. Team boehner and team obama dig in their heels. Narrator now the house belonged to the opposition. They made it clear that obamas domestic agenda was dead in the water. The president turned to an area where he could act without bipartisan cooperation. His people made it clear that in the terrorism arena, he was going to be as tough if not tougher than the bush people. He was going to be extraordinarily aggressive. Narrator while he presided over the draw down of troops in iraq, obama dramatically enhanced covert operations around the world. He and his people reviewed all existing ongoing cia covert operations, and with the exception of aggressive interrogations, endorsed all of them, and doubled down on a number of them. Narrator targeted killings by drones, covert special forces raids overseas, cyberwarfare. President obama authorized it all in secret. The man who americans had elected to end two wars and who was in fact winding down the iraq war was also beginning to rev up these secret wars. Hes the first Nobel Peace Prize winner with a kill list. And it is very disappointing to his base. It is very disappointing to the Civil Liberties supporters who thought he was going to be much more of a stereotypical liberal. Narrator and for president obama, it would lead to one defining triumph. Good evening. The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama Bin Laden. Narrator the killing of Osama Bin Laden in the spring of 2011 was a high point. Thank you and god bless the United States of america. Narrator but the clashes with republicans in washington did not go away. Congress now has less than a week to come up with a plan to raise the debt ceiling. Theres no sign of a deal. Narrator a deal to address the countrys growing debt crisis, known as the grand bargain, collapsed. Another white house meeting failed to break the deadlock on raising the National Debt ceiling. I just got a call about a half hour ago from Speaker Boehner who indicated that he was going to be walking away from the negotiations that weve been engaged in here at the white house for a big deficit reduction and Debt Reduction package. Narrator bipartisanship was long buried. Now there was open antagonism. When that collapsed and when that ended up in that terribly muddy compromise that nobody liked, i think that was the turn. I think at that point he and everybody around him decided, this isnt working and were not going to work this way. And the American People i think are fed up with political posturing and an inability for politicians to take responsible action as opposed to dodge their responsibilities. Weve seen his Approval Ratings on the economy dip. Narrator three and half years after he came to washington on a promise of change. Obama is under 50 approval rating. Narrator . Barack obama returned to the campaign trail himself changed. A difficult road ahead for the president. I think you see today a president obama with a thicker skin, more jaundiced eyes, has grown more skeptical, even cynical perhaps, about washington. No president has been reelected with this type of economy since franklin roosevelt. I think he has become more cautious, more cagey, and i would have to say, maybe with some deserved. More illtempered. Narrator now, as he makes the case for reelection, the man who promised to transcend differences emphasizes them. The last thing we can afford is a return to the policies that got us here in the first place. Then he becomes tougher in his public rhetoric. He would rather go out on the campaign trail, even, and hold out the republicans for being obstructionists than try to sit down with them. If i said the sky was blue, they said, no. If i said there were fish in the sea, they said, no. They figured, if obama fails, then we win. Its hard to believe that this is the same person who was talking about bringing red america and blue america together, because he is now a polarizing figure. Its the same agenda that they have been pushing for years. And his entire Campaign Message is about the differences between the two parties, not the similarities. The choice you face wont just be between two candidates or two parties, it will be a choice between two different paths for america. A choice between two fundamentally different visions for the future. Markets plunged at the open this morning after. The economy still struggling to gain any traction. Unprecedented level of joblessness. Narrator in the summer of 2011, mitt romney saw political opportunity in the economic crisis. An economy many said would improve in the second half but hasnt yet. Narrator . And decided the country needed his help. We know we can bring this country back. Im mitt romney. I believe in america. And im running for president of the United States. Narrator this time, romney would sell himself as the turnaround specialist. Turning around a crisis takes experience and bold action. Narrator his campaign would aim to be all about the economy. The economy is in crisis today. The republican president ial candidates have another. Narrator for months, romney battled one primary challenger after another. Romney is trying to put Rick Santorum behind him. Ron paul got more than 40 of the vote. One of his aides once told me that when mitt romney gets locked in, when he gets focused and locked in, watch out. This guy is so goaloriented, and once he has something that he wants, he doesnt stop until he gets it. Narrator to win the primaries, he even stopped talking about his signature achievement romneycare. If we want to get rid of obamacare, were going to have to replace president obama. My mission is to make sure we do exactly that. In this political market, romneys Health Care Plan is a loser, or seems that way to him. Even though its his biggest achievement as governor, one of the biggest achievements of his life, really, if the politics arent there or hes worried that the opposition is too great, hes not talking about it. What does mitt romney believe . Is he truly a conservative . Not exactly a person of conviction, not even close. What type of values does he actually believe in . He has been, ill be where the market needs me to be. And so the massachusetts romney, obviously very different from the 2008 romney. 2008 romney pretty different from the 2012 romney. And so heres a guy whose skills are not ideological, theyre not philosophical. His skills, his passion is about process, not about ends. He thinks, the weak condition of the economy, thats made for me, mitt romney. I can fix that problem. And this is what im trained to do. I can come in, i can build a team, i can be serious about this. I think, you know, with every fiber of his being, he believes he can do that. Mr. Chairman and delegates, i accept your nomination for president of the United States. crowd cheering narrator now, america faces a choice between these two very different men. One, a son born to privilege who followed a path blazed by his father. A bishop with a deep faith in god, family and his own abilities. The other, a son born to an absent father and mother who created his own identity and came to believe that he could find Common Ground in a nations differences. The challenger, a businessman who became a turnaround specialist and crafted himself to meet the politics of the moment. The incumbent, a politician with a breathtaking rise, whose promise to unite the country ran into the harsh reality of politics. Both believe in their own destiny to lead america. Now the nation must decide between them. The journalists of pbs. They answer to no one but you. They take the time to explore all sides of a story. Thats why pbs is trusted more than any other Television News source. You deserve nothing less. Next time on next timfrontline. The Supreme Court put elections in the hands of corporations and big money. Montana. The surprising battleground over campaign finance. Somebody was buying the state out. More ads, more spending, more negativity. Look whos controlling the message. Its these outside groups. It doesnt corrupt the process. Its necessary for the process. Were not seeing where the moneys coming from. Whats more important to this country than free speech . Big sky, big money, a frontline election special. Inu. We really were a family. Hear more about the candidates. It was an awful loss for us. In a collection of 15 video interviews with the people who know them best. They thought that he treated them with respect. He looked perfect, he dressed perfect. Explore our collection of rarelyseen artifacts from the candidates lives. And follfrontline on facebook and twitter, or join the discussion at pbs. Org frontline. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major funding is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. Additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. And by the frontline journalism fund. Captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs. Org frontline. Frontlines the choice 2012 is available on dvd. To order, visit shoppbs. Org or call 1800playpbs. Frontline is also available for download on itunes. Now you told me there was an interesting story where did you find this . My mother had a cousin. Grandpa. Husbands parents. Great uncle. Moms 3rd cousin. Governor of vermont. That id found laying on a trash pile. Flea market. Dealer. In the dirt. She paid 45. 25 dollars. Never seen one quite like this. Rare. Fabulous. Fantastic. 25,000 dollars. 250,000 dollars. . 300,000 dollars. Oh my god every treasure tells a story. Antiques roadshow only on pbs. Announcer this is need to know with jeff greenfield, scott simonm ray suarez, and this week, maria hinojosa. On this edition, in the critical state of florida, controversial changes to election rules. Will they root out voter fraud or keep legitimate voters from the polls . It doesnt have to be someg