Divided Government from WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show by listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio)

Jonathan Alter is a correspondent for Newsweek, a columnist for Bloomberg News, an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and author of The Promise: President Obama, Year One. Today he takes a look at the ways the President may try to work with the new Congress. The podcast will be posted on this webpage shortly.

"A look back at TARP" from APM's Marketplace

Jonathan Alter is the author of the new political book "The Promise." JONATHAN ALTER: Barack Obama told me in an interview that he knew that it would be toxic politically for him to back the TARP bailouts, but he also knew that it was necessary to prevent a depression. Even the House Republican Leader John Boehner, who now decries TARP, pleaded with his members to vote for it. JOHN BOEHNER: If I didn't think we were on the brink of an economic disaster, it would be the easiest thing in the world to me to say no to this. But I believe the risk in not acting is much higher than the risk in acting. But Congress wasn't swayed, and voted TARP down at first. By the time a package was passed, buying up mortgages would have been too time-consuming. So the government decided to temporarily pump money directly into the banks. And Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics says that turned out to be a slam-dunk success.

Download the podcast here. See the full APM Marketplace feature story here. See also: The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, Betraying Our Troops: The Destructive Results of Privatizing War, Charlie Rose with Mark Halperin & Jonathan Alter; Robert Altman & Neve Campbell; Orlando Bagwell & Noland Walker (January 16, 2004)

Charlie Rose's Monday, June 7, 2010 conversation with Jonathan Alter, Author

CHARLIE ROSE: Joining me now "Newsweek’s" Jonathan Alter. He has
written a new book about President Obama. It is called "The Promise --
President Obama, Year One." He interviewed more than 200 people, including
the president and top aides like Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, and Valerie
Jarrett.

I am pleased to have him back at that this table. Welcome.

JONATHAN ALTER: Thanks, Charlie.

CHARLIE ROSE: Look at what’s happening today in the handling of the
oil spill. How do you assess it?

JONATHAN ALTER: Well, I think it showed he has poor political
reflexes, or at least insufficiently quick reflexes. And that, you know,
has been a bit of a problem.

The oil spill is almost a perfect metaphor for the Obama
administration in this sense, that so much of what he’s had to do is clean
up Bush’s messes, all right? So on Wall Street, the auto industry, the
bank bailouts, Afghanistan was a Bush mess that went worse. This is
another Bush mess.

You had regulators, Charlie, Bush-era regulators in the Denver office
of the Minerals Management Services who literally -- not figuratively --
literally were sleeping with the people they were supposed to be
regulating.

See the full interview here. Read the full transcript here. See also: The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope