American Morning
Inside the Obamas' marriage: Love, partnership and politics
They're a power couple, a partnership and about as A-list as you can get: President and First Lady Obama.
So what makes their relationship tick? Author Christopher Andersen’s new book, "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage," gives a peek into some of the Obamas' most pivotal moments on their road to the White House.
Andersen joined Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
Chetry: It’s important to note, we reached out to the White House for a response to the book. They declined to comment but made it known they weren't happy. In fact, they pulled a previously scheduled interview we had with a senior adviser once they learned you were on the show. What’s your reaction to that?
Christopher Andersen: About as senior as you can get, as I understand. I was dismayed because the USA Today story on the book said it was a glowing portrait of a rock-solid marriage and that is exactly what it is. It's a very positive look at what I think is a remarkable first family.
Chetry: The other interesting thing is some questions that were brought up about sourcing, because at times in this book you do relay conversations where Michelle and Barack would be the only people in the room. So explain your sourcing. And explain how that works.
Andersen: It's the fly on the wall technique, I suppose. What you do is you go to the people Michelle and Barack confided in: their friends in Chicago and his friends in Springfield, Illinois; his old poker playing buddies in the Senate that he talked to about these incidents. And they say precisely what they said to each other and what happened behind the scenes. And I do recreate that in the book. This is my 28th book. It is the fourth book I've written about presidential couples. The others were the Kennedys, the Clintons and the Bushes. And I have to say I think this is the most riveting of all those couples.
Mad as Hell: Can we bridge the bitter divide?
Solutions – that's the tough part. We're on, hopefully, the tail end of a deep recession. We've been living beyond our means and there is a sense that not all of our politicians have been stand-up guys and gals.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/23/costello.mah.art.jpg caption="A protester wears an American Revolution-era flag and an Obama picture during the Tea Party Express rally on September 12, 2009 in Washington, DC."]
So what IS the fix?
"We ought to fire all the politicians and get new ones," says Pennsylvania Republican Chris Wesling.
Distrust in politicians is in our DNA. But today, says Republican consultant Rich Galen, things are different. “Now you've got an entire population, on the entire continuum, from left to right, including that gigantic center that looks across the political landscape and sees nobody that they like, nobody that they trust and nobody frankly that they want to follow."
Still, at the Latrobe/Gateway football game in western Pennsylvania, there were some still willing to give politicians a chance. The president, after all, has a 55 percent approval rating. The fix for some – is Mr. Obama.
"He's swimming against the current, you know, and he's got a lot of energy and he's got a lot of a battle," says Stanley Zimmerman, an independent. At the Community of Reconciliation Church in Pittsburgh, the fix is about hope too – and about redirecting our moral compass.
Watch Carol explore the national divide 
"There's no question in my mind the moral authority in this country is capitalism and narcissism," says Pastor Denise Mason, a Democrat. "It’s me and how much. ... That's the basis upon which most of us make our decisions."
Dolan Vogle, a Republican, shares the same sentiment. "It's a very me, me, me attitude," she says. "I'm at fault because I give to my kids all the time."
Carl Vogle likens social harmony to a football team. "Everybody's got to pull their weight and once you do that you have a winning team. Same thing with the government and with America. Everybody works hard, we're going to get there."
The Obamas' love, partnership & politics
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/23/barack.michelle.obama.gi.art.jpg caption="Author Chris Andersen's new book gives an inside look into Barack and Michelle Obama's partnership."]
They are a power couple, a partnership and about as A-list as you can get: President and First Lady Obama.
No matter what you think about his policies, they are an intriguing team. So what makes this relationship tick?
In a new book called "Barack and Michelle: Portrait of an American Marriage," New York Times bestselling author Christopher Andersen gives a peek into some of the Obama's most pivotal moments as the future first couple.
Bill Clinton sounds off on Obama racism charge
(CNN) - While some criticism targeting President Obama is racially motivated, the fight over health care isn't, former President Bill Clinton told CNN Monday.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/POLITICS/09/21/bill.clinton.larry.king/art.clinton.lkl.cnn.jpg caption="Former President Bill Clinton says Democrats need to win the health care debate "on the merits.""]
"I believe that some of the right-wing extremists which oppose President Obama are also racially prejudiced and would prefer not to have an African-American president," Clinton told CNN's Larry King in a wide-ranging interview aired Monday evening. "But I don't believe that all the people who oppose him on health care - and all the conservatives - are racists. And I believe if he were white, every single person who opposes him now, would be opposing him then."
Clinton discussed a variety of issues facing the Obama administration - from health care to the war in Afghanistan - on the eve of the fifth annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative.
Regarding race, the former president was referring to an outburst from Rep. Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, who shouted, "You lie," at Obama during the president's joint address to Congress, and also former President Jimmy Carter's assessment that racism is an obstacle for the current president.
"While I have devoted my life to getting rid of racism, I think this [health care] is a fight that my president and our party - this is one we need to win on the merits," Clinton said.
US general: Deliver troops or lose Afghanistan
The top U.S. general in Afghanistan says we have twelve months to get more boots on the ground or the U.S. risks “failure” in the war-torn nation. President Obama told CNN’s John King, any decision on Afghanistan won't be driven by "the politics of the moment" and that the goal remains getting al Qaeda.
Bob Woodward is a veteran journalist for the Washington Post, the first to get General Stanley McChrystal’s report, and he broke the story. Woodward spoke to John Roberts in an exclusive interview on CNN's "American Morning" Monday. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/21/am.intv.woodward.art.jpg caption="Bob Woodward says it will take years to put more troops in Afghanistan."]
John Roberts: I want to pull a quote from the report that you have posted on "The Washington Post" Web site, in which General McChrystal said, "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months), while Afghan security capacity matures, risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible." That's a pretty dire and striking statement.
Bob Woodward: It really says: 12 months, I need more troops, I need to have really have a full counterinsurgency strategy, which is protect the people, go out into the villages, set up the kinds of security stations in contact with the population that was done in Iraq by General Petraeus. If I don't get that, likely failure, defeating them is impossible.
This is a striking thing for a general to say to the secretary of defense and the commander-in-chief. It really takes his finger and puts it in their eye. Deliver or this won't work. And he says, "If they don't endorse this full counterinsurgency strategy, don't even give me the troops, because it won't work."
Mad as Hell: Why the national anger?
If the American mood these days were a movie line, it just might be the one shouted out by the character Howard Beale in the 1976 film, “Network”:
“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
We went to western Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County, to talk to voters about the anger that has spread from town halls to radio talk shows and to the floor of Congress. Last November the county went for John McCain over Barack Obama
It was in Westmoreland county that Obama campaigned just days before the April 2008 Democratic primary, saying that small-town Pennsylvania voters are “bitter” over their economic situation, and that they “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.”
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