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While eschewing emotion - and its companion, vulnerability - Obama should be careful not to sacrifice empathy, the 'I feel your pain' connection that sustained Clinton. This connection is the shorthand people use to measure their leaders' intentions. If people believe you're on their side, they will trust your decisions.

Dee Dee Myers

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Dee Dee Myers
Age: 63
Born: 1961
Born: September 1
Former White House Press Secretary
Opinion Journalist
Political Scientist
Politician
Writer
Margaret Jane Myers
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Careful
Companion
Decision
Obama
Empathy
Pain
Sacrifice
Connection
Use
Clinton
Measure
Feel
Emotion
Connections
Shorthand
Feels
Trust
Intention
Sustained
Believe
Side
Leaders
Intentions
People
Leader
Decisions
Vulnerability

More quotes by Dee Dee Myers

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Palin was a political Hail Mary, a long bomb in the closing minutes of a game that John McCain and Co. were certain to lose. They didn't care if she had the policy or political or emotional capacity to serve as vice president, let alone president. They were willing to drive the country off a cliff, if that's what it took to win.
Dee Dee Myers
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As women have played an increasingly important role in politics, there is no question that they've brought a different perspective, focusing attention on a broader set of issues and building alliances with other women.
Dee Dee Myers
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Obama seemed poised to realign American politics after his stunning 2008 victory. But the economy remains worse than even the administration's worst-case scenarios, and the long legislative battles over health care reform, financial services reform and the national debt and deficit have taken their toll. Obama no longer looks invincible.
Dee Dee Myers
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Obama has become too dependent on formal speeches and set town halls. His idea of mixing it up is taking off his jacket.
Dee Dee Myers
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Exponential growth in access to the Internet, satellite television and radio, cell phones, and P.D.A.'s means that breaking news now reaches virtually every corner of the globe.
Dee Dee Myers
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President Clinton intentionally created a structure that was a little loose. And one that kept him a little in the center. He didn't want one person filtering all the information that went to him. He had always operated with a lot of information coming in and a lot of stuff going out.
Dee Dee Myers
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That's not to say that women's priorities are better than men's. Rather, when women are empowered, when they can speak from the experience of their own lives, they often address different, previously neglected issues. And families and whole communities benefit.
Dee Dee Myers
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You as the press secretary have to protect the president's interests and the White House's interests more broadly. And a lot of people inside the White House, as you learned, sometimes with painful experience, have competing agendas, have differing points of view, have priorities they're trying to protect.
Dee Dee Myers
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Obama has made America cool again - and more than that, he's made his own brand arguably the most powerful the world has ever known.
Dee Dee Myers
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There's no question almost press secretaries talk about the sense of serving two masters. On the one hand you want to protect the president's interests, and you represent his interests to the press. And the press is a proxy for the American people.
Dee Dee Myers
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Yes, Bill Clinton is a big flirt.
Dee Dee Myers
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In the run-up to the 1992 Democratic convention, Clinton's campaign realized that voters thought the young governor had a privileged upbringing. They didn't buy his alleged concern for the middle class.
Dee Dee Myers
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During my years as a press secretary, I developed a powerful internal filter, which worked to strip all things 'off message' from my thoughts before they came out of my mouth. It didn't always work, of course, and I said more than a few things I regretted.
Dee Dee Myers
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I am encouraged to see women are being elected in Chile, Argentina, Liberia, Ireland. More is more.
Dee Dee Myers
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The first time I met Bill Clinton was actually 1988.
Dee Dee Myers
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Having a sense of humor has served me more than it has hurt me - just in the sense that it has allowed me to keep my sanity.
Dee Dee Myers
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I'm a baseball freak.
Dee Dee Myers
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Almost all first ladies have had tremendous power on personnel issues, whether the public realized it or not, whether it was Barbara Bush or Nancy Reagan or whoever.
Dee Dee Myers
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After I left the White House, I kept a foothold in the business of American politics as a talk-show host, analyst, commentator, speechmaker, and occasional writer. I was no longer a practitioner, but I was still a partisan, a Democrat, a blue-stater through and through.
Dee Dee Myers
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'Not again!' I thought to myself this morning, as news trickled out that John McCain was set to pick Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Not again, because too often women are promoted for the wrong reasons, and then blamed when things don't go right.
Dee Dee Myers