Neera Tanden had just started cutting down her conservative co-panelist at a health-care symposium last week when the moderator stopped her short.
“Neera, let me introduce you properly,” he interrupted. “Because Neera is a big deal.”
On Nov. 1, Tanden assumed the presidency of the Center for American Progress, Washington’s leading liberal think tank, which is an incessant advocate for a broad progressive agenda and as such a sharp thorn in President Obama’s left side. Her predecessor, the uber-connected John Podesta, is a tough act to follow, but Tanden, a veteran of the Clinton administration, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaigns and Obama’s policy bench, does not lack self-confidence.
At 5 feet 2 inches tall, with an infectious laugh and impatience for ineptitude, Tanden brims with a moxie that can shift to sarcasm. Critics and allies alike describe her as an effective molder and messenger of intricate policy, as well as an expert practitioner of in-house politics. Friends say she is remarkably well-rounded: a model wife and mother, ideal company for a glass of wine, a perfect partner for spontaneous office dancing.
Now, after two decades of making her bosses look smarter from behind the scenes, the 41-year-old Indian American is out front on her own. To preserve the cachet of her think tank’s top job, which Podesta established as one of the most influential perches in the city, Tanden has the tricky task of convincing a self-reliant president that the path toward economic recovery, reelection and a bold progressive future runs through her shop.
* * *
The danger of the road already taken, she argued, is painfully clear.
“The administration created a series of expectations that created a political problem for the president,” said Tanden, referring to the administration’s emphasis on negotiations with Republicans insistent on cutting spending. Now, Tanden argued, “the president is no longer like ‘I’m sort of like these guys,’ ” she said, referring to Republicans. As a result, the 2012 election “will be a stark choice.”
Podesta, who stepped aside to pursue projects including helping out Secretary of State Clinton, noted that the president’s new confrontational posture reflects the advice of CAP, and that his jobs bill bears a lot of CAP ideas. Obama’s sudden preference for executive orders is also out of its playbook. Podesta credited Tanden with helping to lead an effort to determine “the structure of the jobs program” and how the administration “would approach the long-term fiscal challenges.”
Perhaps as a result, or out of deference to Tanden’s new title, she received personal congratulations Friday from Presidents Obama and Bill Clinton as she shuttled from a CAP event to a Georgetown panel discussion to a White House celebration toting a short stack of papers. A host of D.C. power brokers called her a “big shot,” gave her “props,” and sent her flowers.
Josh Gotbaum, the government’s chief pension manager, wished her “whatever the Indian version of mazel tov is.” Tanden replied, laughing, that Jews and Indians had a lot in common: “Our mothers want us all to be doctors.”
Loading...
Comments