Q+A: Interview with Professor Simon Schama
Paul Holmes interviews Professor Simon Schama.
PAUL Welcome back to Professor Simon Schama, one of the world's most widely read historians. An Englishman who lives in New York, he is Professor of History and the History of Art at Columbia University, he's also a writer and television presenter. He's responsible for the books and the TV series Obama's America and The American Future. Professor Schama is a political commentator for the BBC and CNN, amongst others, and so he's got tremendous insight into President Obama and how and why America voted as it did last week. Obama himself described the Democrats' loss last week as 'a shellacking', so I asked Professor Schama when I spoke to him exactly how big a thumping it was.
Barack Obama says he got 'a shellacking'. How big a thumping is it, Simon Schama?
SIMON SCHAMA - Professor of History
Well, there's no doubt that the overused word 'historic' for once is absolutely appropriate. I mean, when Ronald Reagan was wallowing around in the trough of a recession in 1982, he just lost 25 seats in the House of Representatives, and that was thought to be a serious setback, and Reagan knew that his chances of being re-elected would only correspond to the degree to which there was an economic recovery. It was much, much, much worse for Barack Obama. Which isn't to say that he doesn't have certain cards to play. Um, there was a time when it seemed a distinct possibility that he would lose both Houses of Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He not only didn't lose the Senate; there were crucial moments when the most rabid element of the Tea Party actually went down to defeat - in Delaware, in Nevada, and even in Colorado. So he has some cards to play. The performance in the press conference yesterday was pretty much what was expected. He needed to present a spectacle of a chastened, sobered-up occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The American style, remember, whether you're starting out at Alcoholics Anonymous or whether you're a president who's been beaten up a bit, is confessional. You confess to all the sins you might possibly have transgressed, and then you pick yourself up and start all over again. Now, we will know by the New Year when the incoming Congress really is there - we'll probably know before that - whether Obama can actually play what hands he's got left with a good deal less ineptness than has been the case in the last year or so.
Read entire article at TVNZ (New Zealand)
PAUL Welcome back to Professor Simon Schama, one of the world's most widely read historians. An Englishman who lives in New York, he is Professor of History and the History of Art at Columbia University, he's also a writer and television presenter. He's responsible for the books and the TV series Obama's America and The American Future. Professor Schama is a political commentator for the BBC and CNN, amongst others, and so he's got tremendous insight into President Obama and how and why America voted as it did last week. Obama himself described the Democrats' loss last week as 'a shellacking', so I asked Professor Schama when I spoke to him exactly how big a thumping it was.
Barack Obama says he got 'a shellacking'. How big a thumping is it, Simon Schama?
SIMON SCHAMA - Professor of History
Well, there's no doubt that the overused word 'historic' for once is absolutely appropriate. I mean, when Ronald Reagan was wallowing around in the trough of a recession in 1982, he just lost 25 seats in the House of Representatives, and that was thought to be a serious setback, and Reagan knew that his chances of being re-elected would only correspond to the degree to which there was an economic recovery. It was much, much, much worse for Barack Obama. Which isn't to say that he doesn't have certain cards to play. Um, there was a time when it seemed a distinct possibility that he would lose both Houses of Congress, both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He not only didn't lose the Senate; there were crucial moments when the most rabid element of the Tea Party actually went down to defeat - in Delaware, in Nevada, and even in Colorado. So he has some cards to play. The performance in the press conference yesterday was pretty much what was expected. He needed to present a spectacle of a chastened, sobered-up occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The American style, remember, whether you're starting out at Alcoholics Anonymous or whether you're a president who's been beaten up a bit, is confessional. You confess to all the sins you might possibly have transgressed, and then you pick yourself up and start all over again. Now, we will know by the New Year when the incoming Congress really is there - we'll probably know before that - whether Obama can actually play what hands he's got left with a good deal less ineptness than has been the case in the last year or so.