The Secretary by Kim Ghattas

Author:Kim Ghattas
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

11

MAKING THE CUT

Yellow leaves were starting to fall, and the mood in Washington was grim as the end of 2010 approached. The newspapers were full of stories about people losing their homes, towns trying to balance their budgets, and industries struggling to stay alive while Wall Street executives got paid million-dollar bonuses.

A government town, Washington suffered much less than the rest of the country; restaurants were full and new ones continued to open, new residential buildings were under construction, and international institutions brought a steady stream of visitors into the city. But the District was not immune to the pervasive nationwide malaise about where America was heading. My American friends worried not just about their jobs but about the future of their country. What was America really about these days? It didn’t feel like the land of opportunity to them, so what did it represent? The contrarian, radical-right Tea Party movement looked like it was sweeping the country. America’s first black president was not uniting or transforming the country. In fact, the United States felt more divided than before, politics as partisan as ever. Unemployment stagnated around 9 percent—a nagging reminder that Obama’s efforts to revive the economy were still failing. The extent of the financial crisis that had hit the United States—and much of the world—in 2008 was more extensive than anyone had first realized. It would take patient, diligent work to unravel years of damage, but unemployed and frustrated people could not wait any longer.

In November, Americans voted in the midterm elections for Congress and showed their lack of patience on the home front. Americans often seemed to dole out time like accountants: the minute something didn’t work, they gave up and tried something else. Two years after electing change, they voted for change again. The Democrats lost sixty-two seats and their majority in Congress. They still had a tiny majority in the Senate. Obama had only barely managed to get his health care reform plan through Congress in March, even with a Democratic majority in both houses. The next two years were looking exceedingly difficult.

Around the globe, it appeared that chaos had broken out too. World news was never an orderly event, and wars, economic meltdowns, and earthquakes didn’t politely wait their turn, but somehow, during this time, the globe felt rudderless.

I headed out after work one day in mid-November to meet a high-level official for an informal conversation about American diplomacy; such conversations were a staple of life for journalists in Washington. A lot of the conversations were had on the phone or by e-mail when you needed a quick comment or one quote for a story, but whenever possible breakfasts, coffees, lunches, drinks, and dinners were arranged. Quality face time was important to develop a level of trust that enabled officials to part with some of their more interesting information, beyond the talking points issued in statements. If you were a reporter for a top national American media outlet, your access was almost guaranteed. Others, especially foreigners, had to work a bit harder.

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