November 14 – An Apologetic President, Nervous Democrats and Gleeful Republicans; Assessing the Real Numbers of Dead and Displaced in the Philippines; Inside the Ayatollah’s “Democracy”

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an overview of what went wrong with the launch of Obamacare and how and when it can be fixed with James Morone, a Professor of Political Science at Brown University and author of “Wealthy, Healthy and Fair: The Politics of Health Care for a Good Society and his latest, “The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office”. We discuss the president’s mea culpa over the botched launch of healthcare.gov and the piling on from nervous Democrats and gleeful Republicans.

Part 2

Then we go to the Philippines to speak with Steven Rood, the Asia Foundation’s country representative for the Philippines and regional advisor for Local Governance for an update on the national and local government’s efforts to address the humanitarian crisis in the devastated Leyte province where four million people are in dire need of food and medicine.

Part 3

Then finally, with the Iranian Foreign Minister blaming France and the West for the breakdown of recent talks, and Secretary of State Kerry blaming Iran, we look into the thinking and the nature of a theocratic regime led by a Supreme Leader who has accrued more wealth than Iran gets in annual oil revenues. Iranian/American author Hooman Majd, the author of “The Ayatollah’s Democracy” and a new book “The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay: An American Family in Iran”, joins us.