1:12:34 Mazie Hirono, Angus King, and Martin Heinrich. So they have something else they want to pop open and let everybody know about it. I don't know what yet, but there's something a-brewin'. Yeah, good luck. And the president did an interview with Rolling Stone. Did you read this interview that he did with Jan Wenner? No. Oh, this is a must read. Well, we have to you have to know that Wenner, of course, is a huge obot. No kidding. I mean, Gwen Ifill just passed the torch for a hagiographer of the year to Jan Wenner. And there's a lot of things in here. What was interesting is that the interview took place the day which was scheduled the day after the election when Trump won.
1:13:28 Actually, I have a... I have a... I suppose it was scheduled that day so they could gloat over Hillary winning. In fact, let me read from the article. He says here, the last time I'd interviewed the president was in 20... 12 was a lazy afternoon. I'd gone over a timeline. No, here it is. My final interview with the president of the White House had been scheduled for the day after the presidential election. I'd hoped to look back on what he had achieved over eight years and the issues that mattered the most to him and the readers of Rolling Stone. Here is advice for Hillary and about the road ahead." So we're all in. And that's a journalist. He's going to talk about Hillary. He didn't even have questions about Trump, I'm sure. Hillary's going to win. I want to read a little bit more from this, but I'll go now to Laura Ingram.
1:14:17 It was a conservative talk show radio. It must have been Fox that she's on And she highlights something from this interview. This president, for all of his kind of, you know, no drama Obama, comes out and in a very infantile manner blames cable news, and I'm surprised he didn't mention talk radio, my field, because that's what he usually does, without any sense of personal responsibility. So they say Trump can be immature at times. What was that? And he goes over to Europe and he says, well, you know, I'm actually very popular. Look at the polls. Like my policies are actually very popular. You just got shellacked. No, he got shellacked. No, no, no, no. Buttslam! Buttslam. Hammers were used in shellack. So here is a piece, just a little excerpt, about America still being a progressive country.
1:15:06 As I, as the president speaking, I think that nothing is determined but that the number of people who have a strong belief in a fair, just, equal, inclusive America is the majority and is growing. And part of the challenge though that we do have, and this is something that I've been chewing on for a while now, is that there's a cohort of working class white voters that voted for me in sizable numbers, but that we've had trouble getting to vote for Democrats in midterm elections. In this election, they turned out in huge numbers for Trump and I think that part of it has to do with our inability, our failure to reach those voters effectively. Maybe the hope and change thing, and yes we can, had something to do with it because he didn't. Yes we can, he did not. But there was no change whatsoever except in their pockets. You can take that to the bank.
1:15:53 But we've had trouble getting to vote for the way. It's one more complaint. Yeah, he ran as an anti-war candidate oh, yeah, does anybody figure out that maybe the American public is a little sick and tired of war and Hillary is another war pro wishes actually ran as a pro-war candidate well just so you know Paul Part of the problem here is the inability, or failure, says the president, to reach those voters effectively. Part of it is Fox News in every bar and restaurant in big chunks of the country. I have never seen Fox News in any bar. No, it's ESPN or CNN. Or any restaurant. It's always ESPN or some football game. Or CNN. Or CNN, yeah, I know. Or CNN, like at the airports. Every airport has got CNN running. There's no Fox.
1:16:43 So, he says, part of it is also Democrats not working at a grassroots level, being in there, showing up, making arguments. That part of the critique of the Democratic Party is accurate. We spend a lot of time focused on international policy and national policy and less time being on the ground. No, you can be on the ground all you want. People are tired. They're tired of words. That's what he keeps saying throughout the entire interview is, well, you know, it's here. Because this is not simply an economic issue. It's a cultural issue, a communications issue. It is true that a lot of manufacturing has left or transformed itself because of automation. Really? Really now? Is that why Carrier was going down to Mexico? Because the automation down there is so much better? Mexican automation, baby. Let me write that down. Mexican automation. Those guys don't mess around. I got those pens. Oh, you got the ink joy pen? Yeah, they're pretty good. I like it. It's pretty good.
1:17:42 But during my presidency, we added Manuel, blah, blah, blah. And we just see if it's because pretty much what he's doing, what he keeps saying, I may just go to the end here and give you the payoff. He says throughout the whole article that that's what he's going to be concentrating on when he leaves the White House. He is, see... Sorry, somehow my markings run away. But anyway, what he says is that he is going to be working on strategies for progressives of better communicating with the middle class and working America.
1:18:26 And what I find fascinating about it, you really have to read the whole thing because it's really woven in throughout his entire interview here. Here it is. Well, the most important thing I'm focused on now is how we create a common set of facts. Yes, we need a common, we need a ministry of truthiness. How do we create a common set of facts? That sounds kind of abstract. Another way of saying it is, how do we create a common story about where we are? The biggest challenge that I think we have right now in terms of this divide is that the country receives information from completely different sources and it's getting worse. The whole movement... Wait for it.
1:19:05 The whole movement away from curated journalism to Facebook pages in which an article on climate change by a Nobel Peace Prize winning scientist looks pretty much as credible as an article written by a guy in his underwear in a basement or worse. I don't know if it could get much worse. Or worse. Or worse. I don't know if it can get much worse than that. Well, maybe the 400 pound guy. Or something written by the Koch brothers. He said that? Yeah, he says it right there. Koch brothers! The Koch brothers are blogging away on the Facebooks. People are no longer talking to each other, they're just occupying different spheres. And in an internet era where we still value a free press and we don't want censorship of the internet, that's a hard problem to solve. I think it's one that requires those who are controlling these media to think carefully about their responsibilities, licensing, and whether there are ways to create better conversation.
1:19:58 It requires better civics education among our kids, agree, so we can sort through what's true and what's not. It's going to require those of us who are interested in progressive causes figuring out how do we attract more eyeballs and make it more interesting and more entertaining and more persuasive. Well, first of all, I would suggest you hire the Curry-DeVore Act Consulting Group because we can give you a couple of pointers. And this is what he says he's going to be focusing on. So all this noise about Trump TV network What you say to yourself, with your head in the clouds. President Obama is going to set up some kind of media initiative. with, you know, common set of facts. It's gonna be like Media Matters. I mean, that's the Hillary Clinton front organization. Yeah, yeah. Media Matters, which is just a propaganda tool. And so was he gonna have another version of that? I mean, how many of those do we need? Well, it'll be the official one, you see. The sanctioned by President Obama. I think he's gonna muscle out the Clintons under this, a lot of these scams. Oh, he don't need... Hillary Clinton does not need Media Matters anymore. So maybe Obama can take it over.