John Podesta, White House Chief of Staff during the Clinton administration, and James Fallows, news analyst for The Atlantic magazine, exchange views on a variety of topics including the use of new media by the Obama campaign; whether to trust and empower local supporters with public diplomacy messaging and the public face of a country or a candidacy.
Fallows analyzes Google's questionable relationship with China's government. He also interprets the meaning of its censorship activities and resistance by the Chinese people. Whilst Podesta compares the resistance to President Clinton's efforts at health care reform to resistance against President Obama's. Podesta also gives examples of how opposition, empowered by new media, moves quickly to its targets, and what that means for the future of public policy debates.
John Podesta is the President and CEO of the Center for American Progress. Under his leadership, the Center has become a notable leader in the development of, and advocacy for, progressive policy.
Prior to founding the Center in 2003, Podesta served as White House Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton. He served in The President's cabinet and as a principal on the National Security Council. While in the White House, he also served as both an assistant to The President and Deputy Chief of Staff, as well as Staff Secretary and a Senior Policy Advisor on government information, privacy, telecommunications security, and regulatory policy.
Most recently, Podesta served as co-chair of President Obama’s transition, where he coordinated the priorities of the incoming administration’s agenda, oversaw the development of its policies, and spearheaded its appointments of major cabinet secretaries and political appointees.
James Fallows is National Correspondent for The Atlantic. He has worked for the magazine for more than 25 years, based in Washington DC, Seattle, Berkeley, Austin, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, and most recently Beijing. He was raised in Redlands, California, received his undergraduate degree in American history and literature from Harvard, and received a graduate degree in economics from Oxford. In addition to working for the Atlantic, he has spent two years as Chief White House Speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, two years as the editor of US News & World Report, and six months as a program designer at Microsoft. He is an instrument-rated private pilot.
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