ANNOUNCER: This is the Washington Week Webcast Extra.
GWEN IFILL: Hello, I'm Gwen Ifill.
I'm joined around the table by Dan Balz of The Washington Post; Coral Davenport of The
New York Times; Jeff Zeleny of CNN; and Eamon Javers of CNBC.
We want to return to the fallout from two pieces of the week's big news: the
unexpectedly strong jobs report and the administration's decision to reject the Keystone
XL oil pipeline.
First, to the jobs numbers.
We know they are good for people seeking work and bad for people who were hoping zero
interest rates would last into next year.
But what do they mean for the markets?
Does Wall Street even know what good news is anymore, Eamon?
EAMON JAVERS: Yeah, that's a really good question.
So for a long time we've been in this cycle where Wall -
GWEN IFILL: I know it is, because you told me to ask you - (laughter) - by the way.
EAMON JAVERS: Don't tell them that!
GWEN IFILL: Oh, I'm sorry, the secret.
This is why you watch the webcast.
EAMON JAVERS: The webcast - to get the real deal on the webcast.
(Laughter.)
So, look, you know, Wall Street for a while now has been in this phase where bad news in
the economy is actually good news on Wall Street because it means that the Fed is going
to keep interest rates low and going to - is going to continue with what they call QE, or
quantitative easing, all the stimulus that the Fed's been pumping into the market.
So the market actually has been reacting well to bad news on the jobs front.
Now we're in this weird moment where we're getting good news on the jobs front, so is
that bad news for the market?
Well, today the market really couldn't decide.
The Dow ended up about 47 points at the end of the day, so it was kind of a wash.
GWEN IFILL: That was it, kind of a wash, yeah.
EAMON JAVERS: Yeah, the market is sort of unsteady now, trying to figure out is now the
point at which we can finally decide that good news is actually good news.
GWEN IFILL: I always try to decide whether it's even worth it to use the market as a
measure.
EAMON JAVERS: Yeah, right, because markets go up and markets go down, right?
GWEN IFILL: Yeah, yeah, right.
EAMON JAVERS: I mean, so - but it does tell you what people with enormous amounts of
capital to move around the world are thinking at any given moment.
It's a good window into their minds, anyway.
GWEN IFILL: And Coral, I wanted to go back to the XL decision, because you said during
the regular program that one of the things that the president was thinking - had in his
mind was - were these big Paris climate talks next month.
First of all, what are they?
Who's going to be there?
And why was it important to send a signal to that?
CORAL DAVENPORT: So the U.N. climate change summit, the aim of it is to get an
international accord which would commit 196 countries - every country on Earth - to
new domestic policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions at home.
We've seen this - we've seen this song before.
They tried to do it in Kyoto, failed.
Tried to do it in Copenhagen, failed.
Big reason that both of those attempts failed is because the U.S., historically the
world's largest carbon polluter, had nothing to bring to the table.
That was
fundamentally the reason that those attempts at these global accords fell apart.
GWEN IFILL: Does the U.S. have something this time?
CORAL DAVENPORT: It does.
It actually has something that the president didn't talk about today.
It has President Obama's ambitious, highly controversial EPA regulations on greenhouse
gas emissions from cars and power plants, a.k.a.
by his opponents the war on coal.
This is really serious stuff.
This is a big deal.
Also, China is coming to the table with promises of significant cuts.
So
there's a real opportunity here.
But the rest of the world still looks at the U.S.
and says, you know what, you know, in 2009 President Obama promised that the U.S.
would act, promised, you know, that Congress would pass a bill.
It fell apart.
It didn't happen.
So the rest of the world looks at President Obama and says, we
know, you know, you're talking a good game, you say you're bringing something, but
the U.S. has twice, you know, played chicken on this.
And so this is something
that President Obama - he has a substantial policy to bring to the table.
He just wants to show even more - he wants to send a really political symbol as well.
JEFF ZELENY: Didn't we get a headline this week that the Chinese are actually emitting
far more emissions than we ever knew before?
CORAL DAVENPORT: Yes.
Yes.
JEFF ZELENY: And I wonder how that plays into this, if the Chinese are coming to the
table now a little bit chastened because now we know their dirty big secret, so to speak.
CORAL DAVENPORT: I know.
So that was really interesting news, that China is
actually emitting, you know, possibly 20 to 70 percent more coal than had been reported.
It's going to be a huge complication for these Paris talks.
So I think for the U.S.
to say, oh, you know, we're coming in even stronger than we had been positioned to be, I
mean, that doesn't at all offset what we see from China.
President Obama also - you know, you played the clip of what he said in his - in his
remarks today.
He was pretty clear that there is actually a lot of substance
to saying no to the Keystone.
GWEN IFILL: Even though it really came in handy for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
(Laughter.)
CORAL DAVENPORT: The whole - I mean, it's a - it's a great -
GWEN IFILL: Defused a big issue.
CORAL DAVENPORT: It's like it's a great political symbol.
He basically said - you know, he has kind of said all along I'm going to make my
decision on the Keystone based on whether or not it's good for the climate.
It doesn't make a difference either way, but he used this as justification because it
will help us in these climate talks as a symbol, thus it's going to be good for the
climate.
GWEN IFILL: Well, you know, I'm thinking if it gets really complicated,
Coral, you'll be forced to spend more time in Paris.
CORAL DAVENPORT: I'm going to spend three weeks in Paris.
GWEN IFILL: Oh, we're heartbroken about that.
CORAL DAVENPORT: Yes.
EAMON JAVERS: You guys are going to Iowa, right?
That's also -
GWEN IFILL: Yeah, right.
(Laughs.)
They'll be in Iowa at that time.
DAN BALZ: We like Iowa.
JEFF ZELENY: We love Iowa.
(Laughter.)
GWEN IFILL: Well, let me test that.
Jeff, let's talk about the Democrats.
JEFF ZELENY: Sure.
GWEN IFILL: They have been kind of back in the background while all this drama's been
going on on the Republican side, and what we've seen is the happy people, Hillary Clinton
and Bernie Sanders, who promised - at least he promised he wasn't going to attack her,
that's kind of changing.
JEFF ZELENY: It is changing.
Certainly his strategists wanted it to change a lot.
I mean, time is essentially running out for Bernie Sanders to make his argument.
Again, it's less than three months before this whole thing begins in Iowa on February
1st, and he is becoming more aggressive.
I think a lot of people kind of read the wrong signal from him at the debate when he
says enough of the damn emails.
The context of that was, he's like, let's talk about
issues.
Let's not have this whole email controversy drown out everything.
So he gave an interview to -
GWEN IFILL: When she shook his hand, that kind of - yeah.
JEFF ZELENY: Of course.
She loved it.
(Laughter.)
It was -
EAMON JAVERS: Sounded like a get out of jail free card, right?
JEFF ZELENY: It was a huge endorsement.
But - I'm not going to comment on the jail
part.
(Laughter.)
EAMON JAVERS: Metaphorically speaking.
JEFF ZELENY: But look, he talked - Senator Sanders talked to The Wall Street Journal
this week and he said that he believes the investigation into her emails is appropriate,
it should continue, so he is drawing distinctions.
But you get the sense that his aides, his advisers want him to swing a little harder.
So I think we're going to see how aggressive he is willing to go here.
GWEN IFILL: Don't we assume she's ready to swing back?
JEFF ZELENY: Sure.
But increasingly she has her eye on what's happening on the Republican side.
I was in Iowa this week with her, and she is consolidating support there and she is, you
know - she's doing well.
She's had a very strong month.
Our new poll this morning showed that she's leading by 18 points in Iowa.
GWEN IFILL: Wow.
JEFF ZELENY: She's doing very well with women.
She's doing very well with voters over the age of 50, who are more reliable caucus-goers
here.
And she's doing very strong in South Carolina.
She's come back a touch in New
Hampshire.
So on the Democratic side, at least right now, it's beginning to look like
what we always assumed, I guess, it would be, that she would be in the commanding
position.
And this jobs report, boy, does that help her.
GWEN IFILL: Oh, absolutely.
It takes another issue and puts it to the side.
JEFF ZELENY: I mean, if - you know, she says she's not running for a third term of this
president, but you know, she's a Democrat and -
GWEN IFILL: Why not?
Unless it helps.
(Laughs, laughter.)
Unless it's a good thing.
DAN BALZ: Unless everyone loves the president.
JEFF ZELENY: And so she's in a good position, but -
GWEN IFILL: It helps to have done this before, in her case.
JEFF ZELENY: Right.
But you know, she knows better than anyone that things can
change, and they are going to not let this escape them.
GWEN IFILL: Well, here's a - here's a good example of how things change.
We saw what kind of amounted in a small way to a conservative wave this week.
There's been generally considered that America is moving one way on gay marriage or on
LGBT issues, that America is moving toward legalization of marijuana, that Democrats
always will hold the statehouse in Frankfort, Kentucky.
And all three of those things proved wrong this week.
DAN BALZ: They did, but they may not prove the overall case.
I mean, I think that's part of what we saw this week.
Look, Kentucky is a border state; i.e., it's more Southern than Northern.
And everything we've seen in American politics over the last 20 years is that that part
of the country gets redder and redder.
And so, yes, the new governor is an outsider with no political experience.
The person he ran against, Jack Conway, was - has lost other races there.
GWEN IFILL: Three times.
Three statewide races.
DAN BALZ: Right.
So in a sense he - Matt Bevin, the new governor-elect, outperformed some of the late
polls.
But the idea that Kentucky is electing a Republican governor shouldn't
be that much of a shock, given everything else we've seen.
On the - on the other issues you mentioned - on the anti-discrimination ballot measure
in Houston and the marijuana ballot issue in Ohio - again, there is a red/blue split in
this country.
And on LGBT issues, again, in Southern states, that's a much harder lift.
GWEN IFILL: There's a red/blue split just in Texas.
DAN BALZ: It is a - it is a much harder lift.
Now, Harris County, which encompasses Houston, went narrowly for Barack Obama in 2012.
He carried it by, I think, like a percentage point.
But this measure went down handily.
This was not a close vote.
Now, the question is, is that a statement on the broader issue of same-sex marriage -
GWEN IFILL: Or about the way this particular -
DAN BALZ: - or about - or about the particulars of this ballot initiative.
GWEN IFILL: Ordinance.
DAN BALZ: I suspect it's a little bit of both, but it may be more one than the other.
GWEN IFILL: OK. And of course, in Ohio John Kasich won this - won that battle
included, because he was against the marijuana legalization.
And somebody - some boy group guy, who apparently - anyway, there's - a lot of things
happened.
EAMON JAVERS: Nick Lachey.
GWEN IFILL: Nick Lachey.
EAMON JAVERS: I learned how to pronounce his last name.
(Cross talk.)
GWEN IFILL: Just for this?
JEFF ZELENY: (Inaudible) - from Ohio.
He would have profited off this handsomely.
EAMON JAVERS: He would have benefited from the marijuana.
GWEN IFILL: The things you learn.
See, that's why you stick around for the webcast.
But all good things have to end.
That's it for now.
Be sure to check us out online at PBS.org/WashingtonWeek, and we'll catch you here again
next time for the Washington Week Webcast Extra.
