Good evening, everyone. Welcome. I am the executive director of the Abraham Lincoln president ial museum. We appreciate your support of this institution. What i think is a special place and thank you for being here for a fastening program for before introduce our great speaker and want to note a few things. First, if you have not had a chance to see our rivalry special exhibit please go see it. We are proud of that exhibit that great rivalry that means so much the States History and second i hope you all got a flyer during the munch of july we are having our annual backpack dry with district 186 and if you donate a backtrack backpack you get a free admission to the museum thats good for the rest of the year. If you bring five backpacks and you get five free admissions. All those backpacks go to underserved kids in district 186, so please consider bringing in backpacks. Finally, please put on your calendars are allamerican picnic that will it will host in Union Square Park saturday august 19 from 6 to like 10 00 p. M. With a lot of food and activities in the night will end with a showing of the classic movie field of dreams, so please come. Thank you for being here and his stomach pleasure to introduce our speaker, peter baker. Im assuming his boss must give combat pay. I hope he does. Peters atrophic journalist having served for 20 years of the washington post. Hes also served in russia, afghanistan, iraq and 2008 he began his work with the New York Times serving as White House Correspondent covering president obama. As the Obama Administration ended they the times appointed peter in addition to all of that because peter doesnt have enough to do he has authored a wonderful book, so he wrote a great book about the impeachment of charles president clinton. Kremlin rising about Vladimir Putins russia. And as you can see he does not shy away from difficult important topics i got to know peter during my service at the george w. Bush library where we were fans of his book days of fire. Im proud to call peter a friend and colleague and now, peter wrote the call of history. I cant tell you how much we appreciate peter taking time from his busy life to join us tonight. Please welcome my friend, peter baker. Thank you for coming. What a great crowd. Can you hear me in the back . Terrific. Thank you. I cant think the Abraham Lincoln president ial Library Museum enough. Allen, who has told you that weve gotten over the years. He did a fabulous job of setting up the george w. Bush library. Its terrific and hes obviously doing a terrific job here as well. I had a chance to look through the museum with a little sneak into the vault and i have to say i called my wife like a geek and was excited to have a chance to be here. What a treat. I wont talk too long. I want to open it up to questions. Im not too good at speech, but i want to start with this. How many people in this room were at the old statehouse when barack obama first announced presidency . Okay. This is a crowd. This is something. [applause]. Really, i should be asking you questions. You guys know him better than i do. I dont get an audience like this very often. You will keep me honest if i get anything wrong, but i can imagine a place better to talk about barack obama and kick off a book about Barack Obamas presidency than here in the land of lincoln. You know when he kicked off his presidency he did it in relating the 16th president s. He lost his White House Campaign from the old statehouse where lincoln began his career. He arrived in washington on Inauguration Day along the same route lincoln took. He took the oath on lincolns bible. He named a cabinet that everyone talked about as being a team of rivals like lincolns was and so there was this very very heavy moment as you all remember at the beginning in which we thought heres another incoming Abraham Lincoln. He was not the only president we compared barack obama to. He was remarkable to see that analogies out there especially in the beginning when we thought of him as this symbol of hope for me generation. He was cast as sort of a latterday john kennedy, jack kennedy, camelots with a beautiful africanamerican Family Living in a house that had built built in part by slaves. We thought of him as fdr because he was taking over at a time when it looked like we might head into a Great Depression and we were at war in iraq and afghanistan. Time magazine putting on the cover with a fdr fdr example. Some called him george washington. Remember the powder wig . Some people compared him even to reagan even though ideologically very different, new political era. When things started to go bad comparisons changed a bit and he was like and to johnson for sending more troops to afghanistan. People made of vietnam comparisons. Some people compared him to Dwight Eisenhower with the hidden hand presidency where he was quite in public, but pulling strings behind the scenes and avoiding military entanglements the weight like did. When things really went badly they compared him to Richard Nixon and said he was abusing his executive authority. Those on the left said he was sometimes like george w. Bush because he didnt do enough to change the counterterrorism strategy. Those on the right called him a new jimmy carter saying he was it elite intellectual. It got to the point where i remember interviewing one of his top aides and he just sighed and said sometimes i think the only president we have not compared him to his franklin pierce, which is probably good because pierce is kind of a drunk. Barack obama was not. Would tell you is a little bit about who barack obama was, which is what we wanted to see in him, many different things. He came on stage in the national sense as a bit of a cipher. We did not know him the way you knew him in illinois. May be some people in illinois didnt know them as well as you do. He was a fresh face on the National Stage. Almost any other president had to spend more time in a statewide or National Office position the power than barack obama had. Really, just two years in the senate in washington before he started running. I think that sounds from the fact he wasnt like any other president before. We looking for comparisons because we wanted to find them. He himself said during the 2008 campaign that he did it look like all the president s on the dollar bill, which is true and that meant in some way the reference to his role in breaking barriers. He was the first africanamerican president , and that would always be the first line in his obituary, but he didnt wanted to be the only line. He was determined to be more than a new complexion in the oval office and so beyond his status as an avatar of a new era he managed to captivate and confuse the nation at the same time. Sort of presented himself as this champion of the new progressive europe. He was constantly defining and crafting his own identity. One of the things you see is a consistent theme. They talk about this idea of identity, about creating an identity. To some extent obamas success on the National Stage was creating this identity for himself. First what became of a breast so best selling book, discussion of race in society and his own generation. Then to the politics of modern society to the arts of david axelrod. There was constant creation and recreation of identity throughout his rise. He was opaque. Even to those of us who covered in turkey didnt come back to the press cabin on air force one and chit chat with reporters. He didnt throw his hands are vegan ask of the kids were. It was a opposite of his very unfiltered Vice President joe biden would do all those things. Joe biden is a very authentic man, whatever you think of them good or bad, right or wrong on the policies he is what he is. Hes exactly what you see in public. He used to have every year a barbecue on the lawn of the Vice President s mansion, and for kids of reporters and staff, and they put up these moon bounces and squirt guns and water games all over the place and he would run around the backyard squirting guns at all the kids. The first year, my kids were there, the kids actually teamed up and gained up on him. By the second your he figured it out. He rousted them and made them his posse and attacked the reporters. [laughing] very smart. Thats not obama. Thats not the kind of guy he was. He didnt roll that way. He was a very reserved personality, intellectualized. He was thoughtful but he is not hes not like george w. Bush. He didnt give up playful nicknames to people. He was not like bill clinton who chartered into any crowd he could find. My favorite story about bill clinton, he would go out and hit the rope line while hillary of weight in the limo. Bush and biden and clinton, they are extroverts and political creatures and ever charge of people out of crowd. Barack obama was an introvert. The first introvert with that in white has probably since maybe jimmy carter. He liked people. Im not saying he didnt but he did not get energy from a crowd the way some of those others did. His staff told me they would have to give, try to lead five or ten minutes after an event in Eastern Frontier recharges batteries because they retrain him a little bit. Thats not unusual. Thats normal for a lot of people but in politician is pretty unusual and thats one of the things that made instead as an unusual kind of president. It doesnt mean he was called necessarily. Marine doubted my office famously compared to do mr. Spock, the character from star trek. Mr. Spock was half human. Thats not a bad comparison think of. There is a human side to barack obama just as they are to everyone for president. He loved to stay up at night watching sports and pick he was a fierce competitor on the basketball court. A real trash talker. He would bump and jostle with these twentysomething aids and razz them for missing a shot and youve got to pick it up. He told the ambassador russia, you got to get those knees going. He had a site to him that we didnt see in public as much that was pretty colorful. In fact, he was a family man who would make sure to leave the oval office by 6 30 p. M. So we could go home and have dinner with his conspicuous to say one great thing about what else is living above the store, a gutsy family more than he had on the campaign trail. He was a good about going to the girls bask about games on the weekends and so we all get in a motorcade and all go out there, wait in the car with the ambulance and that while he coached basketball. Theres even emotional moments. I remember very vividly when the newtown schoolmaster happened, and president obama came out to the briefing of talked about that and he just come he couldnt control himself. He lost his composure which i dont think we seem to very often. He started to speak and then he paused for like eight seconds, which is think about is a long time for a president to stand or not Say Something and then he went on again and he paused again because he couldnt control his own emotional reaction to the thing which again is contrary to his reputation. But he took over an extraordinary time and with great challenges. We were on the economic abyss. The wars in the middle east, we saw russia. At home he had a grand ambitions prevent healthcare and energy and climate change, immigration, gun control and government spending. Some of this he managed to accomplish but he also found himself the target of a conservative backlash. He alienated a lot of the country and we saw in the form of this tea party by seeking an cost in both houses of congress over the two elections that followed. In fact, rock obama one two National Elections for a convincing but the three of elections that really matter to be lost all three of them. He lost the house and the senate and, of course, he lost the white house in 2016. The country was in a sour mood throughout his presidency even before he arrived to his entire presidency, gallup poll showed not once did the American Public majority of americans into gallup polls said the country was in the right direction. A very sour and fiber to be governing in. Only 11 of americans were happy with the countries direction. He had this phenomena where hope and change ended up preside over an area of paralysis and polarization. Essentially, something as undeniably positive as hunting down and finally dispatching Osama Bin Laden only produce a very shortlived sense of unity and consensus from the country. I guess partly because the economic recovery hold us back from the abyss and to produce millions of jobs, cut unemployment in half, but also left many people feeling behind and resentful. Clearly there was a sense that he is not represented a significant portion of the population as they saw their needs in government. He became instead of the change agent to many americans, part of washington. I think its interesting in a lot of ways but hes not the first president to come into office promising unity, only to become a polarizer. All three president s i covered before President Trump basically shared that aspiration. President clinton in the second term inaugural address he used the phrase repair of the briefs. As isaiah said, and by that he meant the partisan breach in washington. Within two years he had been impeached and we were in a very partisan argument over his conduct and what was the proper response to that. President bush came to office promising to be a uniter, not a fighter. He was wanting that to be the case and yet through the iraq war and other decisions he made, the country was as divided as ever. President obama was surprised to discover that he couldnt fix that. It was the one thing you said publicly that he regrets in one of the state of the unions towards the end he said thats the thing just underestimated, how divided we are and my ability to bring people together. That leads us to his successor who did not come into office promising to be a uniter and has not governed as somebody who wants to unite clearly. And, therefore, in some ways represents the country in a time as we see them today. We blame our politicians for our paralysis but in fact, in some ways we ought to think about ourselves because they representing us. We are, these days, more and more living, working, talking and existing in a bubble with people who agree with us. If you are a liberal you watch msnbc. If youre conservative you watch fox. It extends beyond our viewing habits even to where we live. Demographers have figured this out as a breaking point at 800 people per square mile. If you live in a place with fewer than 200 yor 200 you are s likely to be republican. If you live in a place with more than 800 people per square mile you are twice as likely to be a democrat. When leaving with people who agree with us. A pullback in the early 60s asked people would it bother you if your son or your daughter married to somebody from the other party . Only four or 5 said yes. A few years ago someone asked the same poll again and among democrats is Something Like 35 said i dont want any republican in law. Almost 50 of republicans dont want a democrat hanging out at thanksgiving. We are increasingly divided and i think thats the politics that is come to washington and the president obama struggled with asked challenge the last three president s weve had. President obama rightly noted, the easy issues dont come to his desk, only the hard ones. Thats right and as such is true for them, every president. If it was easy you did need the president to get involved. Imagine your whole time and offices spent dealing with the hardest questions possible. It got to the point where he was so beaten down by the hard choices in front of him that he and his first chief of staff rahm emmanuel, the chicago trip mayor of chicago used to joke they should move to hawaii and open up a tshirt shack and they would have just one kind of shirt, white, with one size, medium. And to become such a running joke that every time they were in a situation or the oval office and its a some terrible choice, bail out the auto industry, to authorize this drone strike . Rahm emmanuel would turn to obama and he would just say white. And obama would look back and say medium. If all these times it took a toll on and he didnt show up for a much great even if you look at these pictures, he is a little great ontopic think he carried himself through his presidency with a lot of calm poise, or different than other politicians who are more expressive, lets say. He rarely rushed into decision fix sometimes to a fault. He was in il. He sat alone at the white house late at night reading briefing papers or playing words with friends after his wife and daughters had gone to bed. He was a very disciplined guy picky on indulgence he permitted himself was a handful of almonds. In fact, his chef joked to my colleague and friend that he only allowed himself seven almonds. Not six, not eight. Seven almonds. That became a running joke. President by the way to neither. Sometimes he did at six almonds. I think it tells us something was a joke that his own chef and his wife by the way used to make. I think was a humbling journey for him. What started off as confidence seem to minute sometimes to be hubris. As he started off promising he was going to, the moment when the rise of the oceans would begin to flow and the planet would begin to heal. And by the low point of his second term he had radically revise his expectations, and the staff are member told me maybe there are no incomes and more. Maybe theres only president s are trying to get through difficult times. I thought the exhibit at the museum reminded us that lincoln was not in lincoln at first either. In fact, if you look through the very apt to split of the political cartoons of his time in the newspaper coverage it was pretty tough. He was called all sorts of terrible things. People do not necessarily love lincoln in all parts of the country and did not redo him the way we do today. Thats just the trial of being a president is you find yourself constantly secondguessed, constantly scrutinized and criticized, often for a good reason. Its no question a very diffic