Enter
Q&A
HUFFINGTON
10.28.12
My role was to try to get under his
skin, to try to see if I could knock
him off balance, presenting a variety of scenarios where he might
trip up during the real debate.
Looking beyond the election, the socalled “fiscal cliff” is looming right
around the corner. What path do you
see forward? One way or another,
this will be fixed. The container
will explode otherwise. I don’t
think there is any way we won’t
get beyond it. It may mean that it
goes beyond January 1, and that
way Republicans can save face in
allowing some tax cuts to expire
and lowering taxes on the ones
that they don’t want to expire, but
I think ultimately the fiscal cliff
is too disastrous for the country.
Sometimes a crisis precipitates
action, and that crisis of the cliff
will force action. The question is,
when? I think they have about six
weeks before calamity hits after
January 1, but once that hits, I
don’t think there’s anybody who’s
looking at this that thinks they
will allow all the tax cuts to expire
and all of the budget cuts to take
take effect. It just will not happen.
You’ve frequently discussed Republican
obstructionism on your show. If Obama
is reelected and congressional majorities
stay as is, what’s next? The first priority is the same priority they’re
talking about. It’s how to create
jobs in America. What are their
strategies to do that in a way that
works, and then getting Congress
on board with it. I think the question will be how much rant time
— if the president is reelected
and there’s a divided House and
Senate — how much time does
he have before election season
kicks in again that he can work
with some members to be able to
get some reasonable compromise
through on some key initiatives?
That’s going to be the biggest issue if there’s still a divided House
and Senate. How does he move
the ball when the obstructionists
have signed pledges not to
cooperate, essentially?
Granholm
pretended
to be Sarah
Palin during
Joe Biden’s
2008 vice
presidential
debate prep.