-- he never tears is here and he never sweats. tries tohat he often do is take a step back. make sure we are responding as rapidly as we can, but make sure

that what we are doing is not just tactically smart, but strategically smart. ?hat is our end goal what is the press demanding? what our political opponents demanding? it is what is our end goal. this is one of the reasons i tear my hair out sometimes. he is willing to take the heat in the short term for a better long-term goal. we got a lot of critics in libya. then in the course of time the strategy worked. hash out a strategy like this. people want a lot of around his desk? what is his style for real crunch time decisions? >> there are two elements.

if he wants to make a policy decision he wants a lot of people around the table. he was set up the discussion so he is hearing from the people who disagree with the consensus or disagree with him. he will play devil's advocate to draw that out. the principles are at the table and the staff is at the back bench. the president will often usually -- this is the law professor willnt of president obama, randomly calling people from the back bench. you have to be ready when you're sitting on the back bench for him to call you out and ask your opinion. you have to be there to give it even if it is not the popular opinion in the room. >> has he caught you with your mind and your blackberry and not him? , you're notly allowed to have your blackberry here,

>> but has he ever caught you? >> yes, absolutely. you have donethat has gotten the most engagement? this is more by circumstance than by being clever, but the night that bin laden was killed, i was the one who happened to be first out to tweet that the president was going to address the nation. >> what do you mean you happen to be the first? >> i was faster than jay carney. you think back to that moment, someone is going to tweet out that the president is going to address the nation. thank you mission both good and bad about what is going to happen. that got a lot of attention. that was by far my biggest follower. >> people expect the government

twitter feed to be dry. you throw elbows on your twitter feed. we're a tweet from the other day. you say gop witticism of president obama jumped the shark today when they started saying benghazi is one of the reason for things that are happening in crimea. >> i did. twitter is a necessary element of communication strategy and politics. it is where the debate is really shaped. it is really where the elite issues.l debate there is no question in my mind that the twitter reaction to the presidents performance greatly exacerbated the coverage and the reaction to it. you have to be in there mixing it up. every day, republican senators out therers are trying to characterize the

president's motives and policies. you have to be in there pushing back. >> some and told me that instead of watching the debate, they watch twitter. tell us how you keep up with and shape what people are saying out there. >> i was in chicago headquarters in night of that debate. thead two screens, you had tv and the twitter feed. some people are watching the tv. if you're watching the tv you're thinking this is not great but it is not disastrous. if you're watching the twitter feed, you're seeing andrew threatenedd others to commit ritual suicide over the presidents performance. it is starting to spiral and you how tough the people in the spin room are going to have it that night. >> how will twitter in 2014 be different than when you are

elected in 2012? --i think it would just the i think in 2012 weather was a more elite conversation. it was how reporters are viewing events, is how political operatives are shaping events. , twitter will be a little more like facebook than it was in 2012. more regular people will be getting their information from it. it will have more of an effect on the populace at large than 2012. how is what you are doing with twitter changing it? >> the big things in the last year or so is that it is less about the 140 characters then what you are doing with graphics and images. some of the most retweeted things we have our charts and

graphics of the president's policies. we are all about how we're going rolling out any policy, what is the graphic representation of this that is shareable on twitter and facebook? was your long set budget week on bloomberg businessweek. joshua green called the budget obama's $3.9 trillion campaign ad. is that true? >> there is a short memory about how budgets are. the time of in divided government, budgets serve two purposes. item model for the appropriations committee that is going to fund the government. that is not been as relevant in recent years, because time is has not been able to pass a continuing resolution -- has not been able to pass a budget but

continuing resolutions. it also lays out a broader vision of how the government want -- of how the president wants to govern. last year, we took a detour and embedded in our budget, the last offer made to speaker boehner was an attempt to jumpstart additional negotiations and get rid of the sequester. it was dancing around but was not being done for a long time. he was tried to put forward some compromises on entitlement --orm, spaces of specifically chained cpi. >> you pull back on that. >> let me explain. speaker boehner said any deal should have was chained cpi. here are some tax loopholes we

would change, here are some loopholes for taxes. through many celebrated dinners, they never offered a single tax loophole. offer was still on the table. we turned to normal order of budgeting. >> dan pfeiffer, yesterday you were on air force one. you traveled with the president to connecticut. you talked to him about the new focus on income inequality, do you see that helping or hurting red and purple state senators who are up in 4014? >> the way the president looks at it is that there is a challenge for the american economy and for middle-class folks and folks that want to get into the middle class. the shrinking opportunity, the shrinking mobility. one of the causes of that is growing income inequality. changes in technology and

globalization. factories are able to be more efficient and needless labor. need less labor. what the president laid out in the state of the union and his speech he gave out at the dnc, which a lot of people didn't see because of the escalations in , democrats in red states purple states and blue states can use his info. the good news is that as we head into the election, that is where the public's focus is. >> there was a clear shift in your rhetoric from income inequality. inequality isome a very real problem. is a tremendous challenge we

need to address. it is one piece of the overall economic plan. we want to make sure that we are talking about how we are dealing with income inequality, economic growth,, economic creating jobs. [inaudible] >> we actually look at the data. 50% more likely to vote.

let's compare aca and minimum wage. 34% more likely to support who supported aca. that is a 16 point cap. among independents, it is 50-35. americans view this as a values issue. if you work full-time this country, you should not live in poverty. republicans have no argument against this. if there is proof that the -- ifm wage kills jobs that is your belief, what should at the wage be echo is current rate? should be less? there is a values issue here and american people have a pretty good consensus on it. 60%-70% issue. the republicans are on the wrong

side of it. hundred year phrase for the residents actions come about? ,> we were thinking about 2014 the year, not the election. you have to say that in this town sometimes. we live in a world of divided government. greatest, ttime of , is not realistic -- how are we going to move the ball forward on the president's agenda? it is going to be through primarily due the use of executive power. with some exceptions on

immigration and others that we are trying to push in congress. there's the pan, which is executive orders, regulations, minimum wage executive order. if you want to get a federal contract starting next year, you will have to pay your workers $10.10.$.10 -- through the power of the president's popularity and his --idence -- and residents his on residence -- and social media. we have an initiative that is done entirely through executive authority where we are going to provide access to high-speed wireless for nearly everyone in

the country. president urging the tech industry, there has been $1 billion in commitments from the forest tech companies technology in schools, tablets, computers. we saw the perfect example of this in the minimum wage yesterday. we are trying to pass senatorion passed by harkin and congressman miller through congress. republicans are opposing that. passing legislation is one way in which we will achieve the president's goal of raising wages. we do it through executive order . we are urging states and cities to use local referendums and legislative meant -- measures to do it. we are also calling on companies to do it.

when we arrived in boston yesterday for a fundraiser after this reference, you open up the aoston globe" and you have quote from a local car dealer who says he did it. he raised his minimum wage and is encouraging other companies to do it. it is going to make a real difference. at the end of the year, we want know how many people's wages we raised. calling theou phrase? >> we were trying to figure out everyone from saying

[indiscernible] authority. >> the good stuff you did with your previous push, we can't wait. have tried tot we the president has ordered us to inject new creativity and new thinking into uses of executive authority. , deferred action for the population known as the dream students. and lean student loans energy in the past. said we have three years left. this is the greatest opportunity we will have. we will never have a greater

opportunity to do things for people than we do here. creativity, new thinking, new energy. its go outside of the building and talk to people. >> did he specifically tell you to think. ? >> he said think bigger and think harder. we had some new folks in here and the white house like john podesta who have a real expertise and experience in this matter. he has been really helpful. you have some new cabinet members this time in this term. we are going outside the building and talking to academics, business folks, andni, republicans democrats to get ideas. we're going back to agencies and departments saying what is it you have looked at and decided not to do. it may be there is a good reason you did not do it. inre may be a context change which it makes more sense now.

>> there is ongoing governmentwide effort to find more things the president can do under executive action. you personally are pushing on them hard. >> the president wants to be out every day that we are not moving the ball forward. >> the president in his second term has been taking more risk. we see one of sample of this -- we see one example of this with the persuading. we are seeing a little bit of regulations on food. are we going to sue the president be tougher in the second term? will he have the freedom to take more risks? looking back at the first term that it was not a risk-free endeavor, taking the steps to save the auto industry poll, including one

in michigan said it was not a great idea. there is certainly a freedom in your thinking in the second term because you don't have the same political pressure. >> will we see a little bit more of the second term? .> i'm not entirely sure the phone efforts are something that grows from the president's experience. the community organizer is of the belief that change happens from the bottom-up up and not from the top down. >> stand, as long as i've known dan, as long , how do youown you

imagine the media and press environment in five years. the speed at which things are happening is moving exponentially every year. campaignthe obama rogue all kinds of barriers with the smartest internet campaign ever. we were pushing the envelope and the obama campaign sent one tweet in 2008. twitter is12 comes, driving the debate, it is a huge piece of the strategy. campaign people spend time every day about how to use twitter in the campaign. there will be something in 2016 that we do not know what it is yet, but i can promise you it is -- faster andr

with greater benefits. it will be great for campaigns and make governing harder. >> dan, why would it make governing harder? >> because governing takes time. thatave to make decisions have good substantive outcomes, that are thought through, and basically what used to take a week or two weeks in terms of the press cycle of people -- let's take the ukraine as an example. 10 years ago, maybe five years ago, something happens in the ukraine, everyone is altogether on it and we are united and then we see how the strategy plays itself out and then there is a moment where the press turns on you. now that all happens -- the president spoke at 4:00 and all

of that happen by the time he was finished at the dnc. -- it makes it harder to be deliberative and strategic in an environment where you are. if i could use a sports analogy, it used to be that you'd read the story about the baseball game that night or the next day. we are not just writing the story about it every inning, we are writing it every page. -- there isas to be orelement of hyperbole apocalyptic description of it in every moment. this is the greatest foreign-policy crisis the president has ever had. >> but that is actually true. >> maybe, but you do not know at

this point. there is a long line of the president's greatest tests. there was a long line of them, and many of them went away very quickly. thatw do you guard against pace that you are pushing towards? what do you do about it? >> the advantage we have is that the president is a very deliberative arson. -- person. before we act, before we go out and do something, he will take a .tep back he is always encouraging us to take a long game. the other thing is experience. the longer he is here, the

longer we have been in the white house. to identify the signal from the noise. what is a real legislative problem and what is just a fleeting thing of the moment. i was thinking about this when book just came out. there were some excerpts that were taken and blown up to be this big thing. i took it very much in stride. yearsfident that four prior, a lot of people in the white house would be running around like chickens with their heads cut off. it turns out that three days later when the press -- the press moved on to other things. the fires now burning hotter and faster than they did before. if you days later, you are on to something else. for those of you who are

writing your memoirs, you get involved in your various roles in the white house. about books?el what do you get from participating in them? how do you feel about the fact that your colleagues are going to write memoirs? is that going to inhibit you at all? >> the first is how do you have your day to day work life written about in books. now, everyone -- it is not just the books. everyone writes a tick-tock of every event, so it is written in woodward's style writing. what was everyone thinking in the room, what were they doing. it is all very dramatic. there is a surreal experience, because you go back and clients

through these books or read them. i try not to read most of them. you don't even remember the day that this tremendously dramatic pivot point in the history -- and the historical analysis of the presidency. i always say to reporters who are writing about these books, imagine if someone went into your workplace and wrote about every day you had. its like if there was a reporter embedded in politico. >> that would be great stuff. always interesting and important because this is government and the white house. but it could also be very boring on a daily basis. a lot of this stuff is inaccurate. it just feels to me when i read it later as more dramatic than it really was. >> i think in terms of college --ting memoirs, you can't

you may be telling yourself that you can't say anything of consequence because someone is going to write about it a year from now, 10 years from now. if you worry about that, then you're going to sit in your office all day long. >> do a lot of people take notes? >> some do. of anyone who has taken them for the express purpose of a book. a lot of my colleagues will write looks. in the long run, that is a good thing. the thing is when i was reading robert carroll's book last year on lbj, that is an amazingly detailed portrait of the presidency. the books at some of my colleagues will write will help

serve president obama 30 or 40 years from now. take it frowned on to notes during meetings? >> is part of the job. know, everyone is taking them to refer to their notes for their job. >> we write a book? >> i don't know who would want to read that book, but it would be an interesting and to do. having been here for every day -- i havewould be some perspective that only a handful of people have. it is a select group of the overly stubborn and tired to have done the whole thing without a break. essentially, i think that a book -- there is historical

benefit of one persons's view about how this or that decision was made. it would offer some perspective on not just this president, but what it is like to govern in this day and age. >> it is january 20, 2017, was a likelihood that you are in the west wing? high, but think it is it is close to impossible. a -- the day to leave any of these jobs in the white house as the day it is no longer a thrill. if you can't find one reason to be thrilled during the day, then it is probably time to go. people leave for very good reasons. there are times and i thought it was close to happening, but this

year has been the most exciting year that i have worked in the white house to date. there is a new energy. the president is focused. we have a map and a plan of how we're going to use these next three years. it has been very energizing. went it is not apparent on the outside, what is the trigger for that energy? >> a little bit is the ticking clock, which three years from now seems a century ago to me. not mean that this will end tomorrow, but you know that you will never have a greater opportunity in your life to do more things for people than you have now. how can we maximize it. how can we do real things. this is the greatest job i will ever have.

that is exciting. i think people feel that. this terrible,as tough year for the president. he was an annoying year in many ways because many things happened that were challenging. but, we made progress. when you think back on it, we took all of that and we are still kicking. we are moving forward and doing real things. that is great. >> i know that you don't expect this to happen and you don't dwell on it, but you plan ahead. senatehave a republican in genoa 2015, which would mean a totally republican capital, what would be your strategy agenda for dealing with that? >> i am not planning on it, we are not repairing for it. i am very confident the democrats will retain the senate.

expectation that the -- >> it wouldld be vetoes and investigations. it would be a loss of the agenda that the american people support. in the arena of judicial executive nominations, a republican senate would block almost everything. the fact that this president got four nominations to the second-most powerful court in consequences have for jurisprudence that the public will hear about. the ability to pass a budget

happen with the republican led senate. the republican senate would spend all of its time trying to rip peel the affordable care act. they would fail in that, but it would be a wasted opportunity. >> dan, it is june 2017. he turned down that big job at the nba. you're the washington bureau chief of the new york times. how you change -- how do you change the structure of how the president is covered? the way in which the white house does things in the way the white house press ares covers the white house will be a little bit outdated and not meeting the times. things are moving too fast to but ihanges right now,

think it is critically important that there is a place during the day at some point in time on camera where the white house is forced to answer questions from the press. i think that is important. doesn't make sense that it happens at one in the afternoon it is midmorning in late morning? probably not. i would suggest things that make it would be more, potentially fewer folks who are general reporters coming to the white house and more subject matter experts who cover a beat and the white house becomes part of that the. instead of the fact that we are immigration,a or the white house reporters forced

to write the immigration story, the health care story, the economy story. you have experts on that who are covering the white house there. in the way people consume information now, they want more expertise than -- they don't need as much to know just what happened that day. it is less stenography and more in-depth analysis. i think that would be better for the presidentse would have more policy for everyone. i think you would want to hire some very smart technological people to figure out how you can take the content you get from reporting and transferred into a more mobile friendly format, a more visual format. i think that is graphics and charts and videos. it would be a big piece of covering the white house in 2017. last but not least would be, you would want to dedicate some people who cover the white house

full-time, or close to full, doing longform journalism. some who regularly write about the forest and not just the trees. >> how can you imagine briefings which now takes the form of the 1:00 is shown camera with people in the seats and jay behind the podium. what could you imagine would be more modern? >> i've thought about this a lot. was thinking about how we could do this differently. i don't know a good answer to that. is it a shorter briefing in the morning? dayt something later in the to wrap things up? are there ways in which people could get questions intermittently throughout the day? is they way in which you can get

the public more involved? how do -- the whiteond house press corps is very important. how do you have a situation where some of the folks out in the country, either the republic or reporters who are not in washington who are dissipating in some way. can you imagine experimenting got?what you have >> is hard to imagine. it is something only a new president could do. why, in your point of view, is moded or archaic. ? >> the have talked to reporters who are in the briefing 10 times

. >> so it is like behind the curtain. >> they have already written their stories and tweeted about it and blogged. that is a chance on camera were j would have to stand up there and answer questions. it is not as informative as it used to. that used to be your one shot to get an answer. you are only going to write one story and turn it in at 6:00 and it would be in the paper tomorrow. you would do one broadcast at 630. that is not the case anymore. >> what is a book you've read recently that you recommend to people who work for and with you? >> over the course of the that is i read two books read for the express purpose of thinking about the job. i read peter baker's book about the bush administration. and i read another book about bill clinton and the survivor.

for all the apocalyptic descriptions of our 2013, life is just really hard in the white house. i looked at that and i said you know what? better than almost any other year of the bush or clinton administration. -- our 2013 seemed better than almost any other year of the bush or clinton administration. >> dan, you had heart trouble. >> i was at a dinner with -- it washaving situation.syria had what would be considered a

mini stroke. i had loss of feeling in half of .y body it was scary at the time. where io the hospital, have very good health care. >> george washington hospital gave you good care? was -- i was very fortunate. the mistake i made was that i went to work the next day and i was back in the hospital. that gave me a lot of fragile allon how of this is, and the need for care. i have been taking steps to make sure that does not happen again. i am in pretty good health. >> what was that? >> bette quality of life and

work. dennis would have done just as well without me there. you make decisions in your life. it will all be fine if you are not dead that day. >> what is something that you -- gaveave up four lent lent or that you should? >> what i should probably give watching sports center in the morning rather than the morning shows. challenge. >> give us something that you should actually give up? >> i think it is building on what we talked about, which is

having better work/life balance. have some -- it is important to remember in the white house that it is a marathon and not a great. ultimate question, we know that the president reads david brooks. we know that he reads the new york times editorials. we know that he reads the new that thehat is it president reads, you know that he reads it. ipadis out there on his that would surprise us? >> he reads a lot of magazines. he watches a lot of espn and sports illustrated. is not any specific publication, but he finds things on the internet digging pretty deep that are interesting articles that someone has

written that are subject matter like you mentioned a very fascinating piece about -- bees and the fact that there are fewer bees. interesting. he brings that stuff up. he reads a lot of fiction. he reads a lot of books, short stories, things in the new yorker. for people who think that the magazine industry is struggling and president obama is single-handedly trying to keep it up. >> we have people who are c-span. live stream on what is your advice to young perp and working on the hill about how to succeed in washington? they want to be you. >> i would say two things.

i would recommend people go work on campaigns. i think that is the ultimate meritocracy in politics. once you get out there it doesn't matter how old you are, or you went to school, if you are sparked -- if you are smart, you will get a chance to do things. step two is never go work for the person you think is going to win, work for the person you want to win, because that will work best. i've have had kids work on a couple of campaigns that felt like crusades and causes. there's no better feeling than that. i can't let you go without finding out who your final four will be. >> i went to georgetown. i usually screw my bracket up. this year it probably won't be a florida, arizona, movie villain and mexico would

be virginia. >> and your to? ? >> it would be florida and arizona. are you more accurate than the president? pickedpresident georgetown to go far. georgetown destroyed his bag -- destroyed his bracket. he has done much better than i have. >> will harvard go to march madness? >> i suspect there will that will win in the first round again. >> so they will win in the first .ound >> yes. >> thank you for carrying this

fascinating conversation. i would like to thank the white house that made this possible. and bank of america for making these conversations possible. dan, thank you for a great conversation. >> thank you. [applause] >> next, q and a with securities and exchange omission chairman ray joe white. live at 7:00 a.m., your calls on "washington journal." today we will be hearing from transportation secretary anthony fox. he will be among the speakers at the american public transportation association's legislative conference.

our live coverage begins at 9:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three. >> if more than one entity manages the key identifiers of the internet, then by nature the internet will no longer be one net. at the heart of the domain name system is the root services system. that in orderate to resolve names on the internet there is an actual root system that makes it work for the entire planet. in the root, all names are resolved to ensure that when you david ww. c-span.org or any other website name, you go to the exact site that c-span wants you to go to all the time, every time i'm a for the last two plus decades.

tonight, on the communicators at 8:00 eastern on c-span two. >> this week on "q&a," the chairman of the securities and exchange commission mary jo white. talks about her life and career and the agency she has supervised since 2013. >> mary jo white, why did you even consider being the chairman of the securities and exchange commission? >> great question. it is a wonderful agency. i was the attorney general in new york, worked very closely with sec.

professional staff, totally dedicated. they mean so much to our lives. to our markets. and it is public service. nothing motivates like public service, particularly at this level, the sec. >> for someone who has no idea where it is, what it does, tell us. >> sec has about 4000 employees. its mission is to protect investors, which creates jobs. keep our capital markets fair and orderly and efficient. it has a vast array of responsibilities. the sec oversees about 11,000 investment advisors, brokers who also advise. we oversee the exchanges. we are kind of everywhere that we can be to protect our capital markets and investors. >> but you do not have a criminal investigation role? >> we do not. we have a vast enforcement role.

one of the most critical things the sec does is to enforce the laws. it does not write the rules, by the way, for wall street and broker-dealers and investment advisers. we cannot have criminal authority. we have the power to bring civil actions, civil fraud actions. we can't send anybody to jail, but we can assess civil penalties. frankly, our level of penalties is not as high as we would like it to be, and there is legislation in congress to enable us to assess higher penalties. we can require those to disgorge their ill-gotten gains and we have the power to bar someone from the securities industry so they cannot live another day to defraud again. >> earlier in your life, you referred to the fact -- some people, when you were a

prosecutor, seemed to think you were attila the hun. >> i've always had a pretty strong moral compass from my parents. i have a pretty straight path to achieving that. if someone commits wrongdoing, whether when i was the u.s. attorney or chairman of the sec, i'm pretty tough. >> how does somebody know when you're mad? >> i don't get mad often. if i get mad, you will know. there is no doubt about it when i do. i seldom get angry. it's not a constructive emotion. >> where did it start? where were you born? >> kansas city, missouri. >> where did you grow up? >> mclean, virginia. >> why was that? >> my father worked for the health education and welfare department.