The session is important because the previously dominant CNN is locked in a battle with the Fox News Channel that has been playing out, with executives trading insults while poaching each other's talent.
Partly that was because the session was running late and the hall was half-empty.
"People feel like he is going to be fair and reasonable," said one Morgan Stanley executive, who asked not to be identified because the session was private.
"He talked about how he was never supposed to win a campaign," said one person who attended, speaking anonymously because the session was off-the-record.
"He was ill at ease, not his normal confidence," said the congressman, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the session was classified.
People involved in the talks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the session was supposed to be confidential, said that the mayor's staff was open to permanently extending the term limits to three terms from two.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Schaeuble warned ministers that they might have to agree to make senior bondholders take losses before allowing banks direct access to the bailout fund because lawmakers in Germany would demand such a concession, according to people with direct knowledge of the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because the session was meant to be private.
I said to her [when we met]: 'Come on, we can do this, we're going to get a medal.' " The pair, whose previous two downhill races yielded gold medals at a World Cup event in Tignes, did not have a training run on Friday because the session was cancelled, and a crash curtailed a previous attempt.
There was also some confusion about whether they could, because the session was officially "off the record". Mr. Abovitz said the remarks bothered him, and at 2 21 a.m. local time, he posted his write-up on the forum's official blog (www.forumblog.org) under the headline "Do U.S. Troops Target Journalists in Iraq?" He did not think it would get much attention.
At a meeting with House Republicans in the Capitol on Tuesday, Representative Dave Reichert of Washington pointedly questioned what the end game is for the party, according to someone who attended and spoke on the condition of anonymity because the session was supposed to be confidential.
