“As every Iditarod musher knows, if you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes.”

– Sarah Palin, in Going Rogue. Yep, she’s ambitious–and No. 1 on Amazon.com.

by Patricia Sellers

Lloyd Blankfein hasn’t loved buddying up to Washington this past year. After accepting–and repaying–$10 billion in TARP funds to help rescue the global financial system, the Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO has had to raise his presence in D.C., as well as in the press, to defend the firm’s record profits and opulent pay. “We went from a bankrupt model to ‘too big to fail,’” said Blankfein, referring to Goldman’s scuffed image, in an interview this morning with Fortune managing editor managing editor Andy Serwer.

Blankfein, you would think, would want little more to do with D.C. But apparently he’s thinking otherwise. When asked if he is planning to take a job in Washington after Goldman, the CEO responded with a story about advice he received when he made managing partner at the firm 21 years ago. “A majordomo told me, ‘You should think of your career this way. If someone writes a nine-paragraph obituary, make sure that no more than two paragraphs are about Goldman Sachs.”

The “majordomo” was Jon Cohen, who is now an advisory director at Goldman and back then was a right-hand man to the late John Weinberg.

Without mentioning “Government Sachs,”–the nickname used by people who contend that Goldman has gotten favorable treatment from regulators–Blankfein went on to tick off a list of former Goldman colleagues who have gone on to big government positions: former Treasury Secretaries Hank Paulson and Bob Rubin, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, and Steve Friedman and John Whitehead. “All had second, if not third acts, in their careers,” Blankfein noted.

Not that the Goldman chief is going anywhere soon. He just turned 55 and probably has at least left five years running Wall Street’s mightiest firm. But given that he supported Hillary Clinton and then Barack Obama for President, it’s conceivable if the Democrats hold power: Blankfein for Treasury Secretary in 2016?

“Progress comes in fits and starts and we’re going to need to grind out this recovery.”

–President Obama, responding to today’s dismal jobs report that showed much greater losses than expected. The reported net loss of 263,000 jobs for September was up from 201,000 in August, and the unemployment rate of 9.8% hit another 26-year high. “I’ve made the point that employment is often the last thing to come back after a recession, and that’s what history shows us,” the President said. “But our task is to do everything we can possibly do to accelerate that process.”

Meanwhile, the teen unemployment rate hit a record high 25.9%, with young minority workers disproportionately affected. At 37%, the rate of unemployed African American teens is four times the national average. “The full effects of that lost opportunity will be felt for years to come,” says Kristen Lopez Eastlick, Senior Research Analyst for the Employment Policies Institute. –Jessica Shambora

One of the highlights of last week’s Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit was an appearance by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who sat down with Fortune’s Washington editor, Nina Easton. Rice got personal about her parents and passion for education. She also waxed political, on Russia, China, Afghanistan and Iran. Whatever their views, Summit audience members were moved, giving Rice a standing ovation as she left the stage. (Read Easton’s take on the interview here.)

Rice’s statement during the interview that the Iranian “regime is done” seems especially prescient in light of recent events.

Last week Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tried to rally support by denouncing Israel, only to be met by thousands protesting his alleged victory in June’s election. Earlier today in New York, prior to an appearance before the UN General Assembly, Ahmadinejad softened his usual incendiary rhetoric, urging President Obama to view Iran as a friend, not a threat.

A clip of Easton’s interview with Rice (see below) was shown this morning on ABC’s Good Morning America and last night by Campbell Brown on CNN. –Jessica Shambora

“First of all, I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election.”

– President Barack Obama, on the Late Show with David Letterman Tuesday night. In the first appearance of a sitting President on Letterman’s show, Obama covered health care and Afghanistan, but also addressed concerns that the rage seen at recent town hall meetings was rooted in racism. He doesn’t think it has anything to do with the color of his skin since that didn’t seem to stop a large number of Americans from electing him. His explanation for the outbursts and anger? “When a president tries to enact significant changes, a certain segment of the population gets riled up.” –Jessica Shambora

By Leigh Gallagher

FDIC chief Sheila Bair gave an insightful and informative interview to CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo in one of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit’s headline sessions today.

Bair, No.3 on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Washington list, spent most of the interview doing what she probably does a lot of these days — clearing up confusion about her agency in the public view. Right off the bat, Bair disputed the notion that her agency has said that 400 banks will fail, an oft-cited figure. “Others said that,” Bair said, speaking quickly and definitively, but calmly. “We don’t make predictions.” She said there are 412 banks on the FDIC’s problem bank list, and pointed out that most of those do not fail. “But the list is getting bigger,” she acknowledged. The FDIC has shuttered 92 banks this year, she said.

She also clarified what she called a “misunderstanding” in the media surrounding the FDIC’s reserve fund. The press, she says, has focused on a $10.4 billion figure for the fund, but Bair says that figure is more a “net worth” figure; the funds available for bank rescues for the next 12 months, she told the audience, are $42 billion. But she said that had recently dropped from $52 billion, so “it’s $10 billion lower.”

She also pointed out that there are ways for the FDIC to access more funds, like increasing bank premiums or borrowing from the Treasury. In what has become a common refrain for Bair throughout the financial crisis, she explained to the audience that depositors are safe, and that when a bank is taken by the FDIC there is no risk for banking customers. “There is no way anyone is going to lose a penny over insured deposits,” she said. “They never have and they never will.”

Bartiromo asked Bair what she thought of the institutions that have been deemed too big to fail. Bair said the “unnecessary risktaking” that led to the financial crisis highlighted the fact that those firms have no resolutionary mechanism: a set of “tools to depose them, put them into receivership and wind them down” should they become troubled. She said what was needed was a law that would provide those banks with a framework so they can be put into receivership, much like FDIC-insured banks. “Unless you make it clear to these institutions that they’re going to have pain [or] there’s going to be trouble” if they take too many risks, she said, “you’re going to have a bad situation.”

Bartiromo also asked Bair what it was like to be a woman at the table often dominated by men. “You have to speak up,” Bair said, “and it can be frustrating.” She said sometimes the better way to be heard is by going public, the way she did when she criticized the Obama administration’s loan modification plan earlier this year.

“No one’s born being good at things. You become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice.”

–President Obama, in his “back-to-school” speech to kids today. The President’s rallying cry reminded us of wisdom divvied out by Fortune’s Geoff Colvin in his book, Talent is Overrated. There–and in his Guest Post on Postcards–Geoff details how exceptionally successful people got that way not by innate talent, but rather, by working really hard.

“The truth is, being successful is hard,” Obama told students today and left them with a higher calling. “If you quit on school,” he said, “you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.” –Jessica Shambora

“I saw it as gonzo, over-the-top writing that some people might find fun to read. I was shocked that others saw it as being supporting evidence that Goldman Sachs had burned down the Reichstag, shot the Archduke Ferdinand and fired on Fort Sumter.”

- Goldman Sachs (GS) chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein in “The Rage Over Goldman Sachs” in this week’s Time magazine. Blankfein is talking about last month’s damning story about Goldman in Rolling Stone. For a guy who thinks hard about the image that he and his firm project (see Blankfein’s Best Advice), he sure isn’t cutting many breaks. Just read today’s page 1 story in the Wall Street Journal charging that Goldman favors big clients in divvying out stock tips.

This week’s Time story, however, goes a long way toward humanizing the world’s most powerful investment banker—a supremely quirky fellow who grew up poor in Brooklyn, made it to Harvard at 16, and didn’t refashion himself for Fortune 500 leadership until mid-career.

At heart, as Time (and Fortune) writer Bill Cohan notes, Blankfein is a trader who believes that the best of his kind are risk-takers who recalibrate better than others do. “The best traders are not right more than they are wrong. They are quick adjusters,” Blankfein says. Now, as the populist ire against Goldman endures, Blankfein is readjusting nonstop.

“We will get in a rocket and fly around the moon if that is what it takes to get everybody together and get an agreement.”

– White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on President Obama’s proposed health-care reforms. While Gibbs opted for sarcasm, the President took the philosophical route, recalling landmark social reforms. “These struggles always boil down to a contest between hope and fear,” he said. “That was true in the debate over Social Security, when F.D.R. was accused of being a socialist. That was true when J.F.K. and Lyndon Johnson tried to pass Medicare. And it’s true in this debate today.” My take? It’s just the first episode of a new reality show: “Extreme Makeover, Government Edition.” –Jessica Shambora

“The United States economy is now out of the emergency room and appears to be on a slow path to recovery.”

–Warren Buffett, today in a New York Times op-ed. The Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) CEO writes that while mistakes were made in the recovery effort, a “gusher of federal money” prevented a meltdown. He goes on to caution that “enormous dosages of monetary medicine continue to be administered and, before long, we will need to deal with their side effects.” If we don’t, the Oracle of Omaha warns us (and Congress): “Unchecked greenback emissions will certainly cause the purchasing power of currency to melt.” –Jessica Shambora