HoustonPublicMedia.org

Former President Barack Obama visited Houston last night. He spoke at Rice University’s Baker Institute at an event marking the think tank’s 25th anniversary. Joining Obama on stage was former Secretary of State James Baker. Much of the event focused on the importance of bipartisanship and how that had broken down in the years between when Baker came to Washington and when Obama took office. The two agreed that the changing media landscape played a big part. Obama noted other causes for that division, then he pointed to the costs. He said one of the biggest revelations to him when he took office was the degree to which the U.S. underwrites international order. And here he took a swipe at the current administration. Without naming President Trump, Obama talked about the costs of “dysfunction” in Washington, making it difficult to make decisions, and the undermining of career civil servants particularly in the State Department.