Obama met with the nation’s governors to hear tales of economic pain – and won points by telling GOP-ers in the room that he welcomed disagreements. Gov. at first sight

No one could remember a meeting quite like this.

President-elect Barack Obama met with the nation’s governors Tuesday to hear their tales of economic pain – and won some points by telling Republicans in the room that he welcomed disagreements, “so feel free,” one participant recalled.


“He said, 'I don't know you as well, let me get to know you, give me a chance, you might be surprised how helpful I can be,’ ” said New York Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat who recounted Obama’s words to the Republicans.

“He said, ‘I’m a good listener, and I’m a better listener when people disagree with me,’” added West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, the outgoing head of the Democratic Governor’s Association.

The gesture went over well with the GOP executives, many of whom were getting their first chance to take the measure of the new president up-close, including two who may challenge him for the White House in four years.

Obama used the hour-plus session today to discuss the upcoming stimulus package, and he pledged to partner with the chief executives as they grapple with budget deficits wrought by the economic downturn.

The meeting was not without political overtones. Some GOP officials grumbled privately that Obama met first with the Democratic governors Monday night. Two Republican governors also told Obama he risks exploding the national debt with a massive stimulus package.

But for the most part, the governors, meeting at historic Congress Hall in Philadelphia for the annual meeting of the National Governor’s Association, were taken with Obama’s openness, policy depth and just that he showed up to engage in a real back and forth, a move none could recall on the part of a newly elected president.

"For me, it was the Barack Obama I knew, but for a lot of the other people in the room, it was a president being unprecedented," Paterson said.

“It was a very productive meeting,” recounted Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman. “Kind of like the days they used to meet in this grand old building,” he said, alluding to the home of Congress when Philadelphia served as the nation’s capital at the end of the 18th Century. “It was very much a working session, with brainstorming – which is so rare in the upper echelons of politics these day which are so staged and scripted.”

Huntsman said Obama introduced his senior staff in the room – including top aides Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett — “one-by-one” and assured the governors that they’d have a direct line to each.

And after Huntsman took the floor to recommend that the regional governor’s associations be used to collect real-time data on the holdups in infrastructure projects and communicate that to the administration, he said Obama brought it back up to him as he walked out.

“One of his greatest attributes is that he’s a keen listener,” said Huntsman.

“The tone of the meeting was constructive and positive,” said Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, noting that he was especially heartened by Obama’s message at the end of the session.

“’This isn’t goodbye, it’s hello,’” Obama said, as recalled by Pawlenty.

For Democratic governors, it was a welcome relief after years of meeting with a Republican president they found to be unfamiliar with details.

“The contrast with our meeting with the sitting president was fairly stark,” said Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, recalling a “much more controlled” environment with President George W. Bush.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, the incoming head of the DGA, was more blunt: “Just to have an administration, a president, a vice president, who listened, engaged, and came to meeting prepared — it’s a brand-new idea.”

The good vibrations aside, there were some difficult facts staring both the governors and the incoming president in the face.

Twenty-five states have already identified shortfalls of $60 billion for the next fiscal year, according to the NGA.

While few governors pleaded with Obama for federal aid in covering those deficits, many did emphasize the urgency of their needs, especially with regard to infrastructure and health care.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke on the first score and was followed by pleas for an injection of federal dollars for aging roads and bridges by other big-state governors from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius discussed the mounting social services needs prompted by the recession, and was followed by several other governors who raised the issue of Medicaid funding — a perennial federal-state dilemma.

Obama impressed the governors with his ability to get into the policy weeds on the thorny question, demonstrating a detailed knowledge of FMAPs, the state-by-state formula which determines how much money the federal government sends to help cover Medicaid costs.

Bredesen said the president-elect expressed a willingness to help states ease their budget crunch by having the feds cover the additional individuals who are coming onto the Medicaid rolls because of the economic dip.

There were some substantive disagreements. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Texas Gov. Rick Perry — respectively the incoming and outgoing chairs of the RGA — expressed concerns at today’s session about the stimulus package, noting it would add to the government’s mounting debt load.

“What we risk is trashing the dollar,” said Sanford later in an interview. “We undermine all this quote stimulus coming out of Washington D.C. if we crank inflation and sink purchasing-power.”

On behalf of the Republican governors, Sanford gave Obama a letter reiterating his views about spending as well as taxes, trade and legislation that would make it easier to unionize.

While offering these “earnest concerns,” as the letter put them, it was largely a warm note, full of expressions of consensus and comity.

And Sanford had mostly praise for Obama’s response to the question he raised in the meeting.

“He was measured. He was thoughtful. He acknowledged the debt was clearly a problem and that he would have to do something about it.”

But Sanford recounted that Obama said he was, in the short-term, focused on getting the economy moving.

He’ll do so on a good footing with the nation’s governors, a group never shy about complaining about Washington.

“He starts off with a real reservoir of goodwill,” said Bredesen.