Monday, February 1, 2010

Another meeting in the Situation Room of the WH with Heidi Avery with the usual cast of characters. For the past 2 meetings, Andy …. From DoD has joined as has John Holdren from PCAST. There is tension building where the HHS people (particularly Nicki Lurie and to some extent Jesse Goodman, Peggy Hamburg and Tom Frieden are getting nervous about the boldness of the proposal and whether we can “deliver” on the promises. Heidi is trying here best to explain that we need a bold initiative and if we are not bold and transforming, we will get nowhere. They are concerned that this is moving quickly particularly since Heidi is talking about possible face-time with the POTUS to have him accept and sanction this bold “new initiative’. I am leaning much more towards Heidi and have served as somewhat of an intermediary to try to alleviate their concerns. They are somewhat in the weeds. Heidi has been calling me up at night to get my confidential feedback about how we can get the HHS group from being so conservative.