July 30, 2010
barry was in NY on Wednesday for 2 fundraisers, a chat on the economy in Edison, New Jersey and his third appearance on The View (book, campaign, POTUS).
Talked pop culture, race, Shirley Sherrod, his children, the media, his poll numbers and his platform policy with an interesting comment about there being a time to govern and a time to campaign. 
The most interesting revelation – he was not invited to Chelsea Clinton’s wedding (pix). He attempts to cover it by saying folks won’t be invited to his daughter’s weddings which has absolutely no relevance to anything. He resorts to his children when he’s stuck for an answer like Malia asking if he fixed the oil leak yet that nobody believed. His non-invite had nothing to do with Bill or Hillary. Chelsea witnessed firsthand how he treated and how he allowed others to treat her mother. Not to mention the barryfans Chelsea had to deal with.
Not sure how these videos have gotten through the copyright issue – but as of this moment they work. Hand-transcribed.
All 5 videos provided by CrazyCelebrityFan. Thank you. I hadn’t seen it.
PART 1
CrazyCelebrityFan
[FOOTAGE OF BARRY TAKING THE OATH AT THE INAUGURATION - (future Exhibit A)]
BARBARA WALTERS (BW): We all remember that day. This is a historic day for “The View.” We are honored to welcome the 44th POTUS, Barack Obama.
BARRY SOETORO (BS): Thank You. Thank You. Thank you very much.
[Elisabeth shakes his hand. He kisses her anyway.]
[First words of the Leader of the Free World.]
BS: This is fun.
BW: Well, I hope so. But you’ve gone through a little bit of a beating the last month. Do you really think that being on a show a bunch of women – with five women – who never shut up is going to be calming?
BS: Look, I was trying to find a show that Michelle actually watched. [No mention of the Missus being on the show.] And so, I thought, this is it, right here. All those new shows, she’s like, uh, let me get the clicker.
BW: Have you ever watched us?
BS: Of course.
BW: No kidding?
[barry's not going to watch himself? Note also he didn't mention he watched his wife on the show or that she was even on it.]
BS: Of course! Well, this is the second time I’ve been on now.
BW: That’s right. That doesn’t mean you have to watch it.
SHERRI SHEPERD (SS): Third time.
BS: It’s the third time?
WHOOPI GOLDBERG (WG): With the book first. I wasn’t here. Then when you were running and now, sir, here you are as POTUS.
BS: I was explaining that these couches are made for these little people. And so, if you’re a little taller, you kind of have to settle in a little bit more.
ELISABETH HASSLEBECK (EH): You look settled.
BW: We said that this has been a kind of difficult for time for you between oil and questions of racism and Afghanistan and a few other little things. We understand that you sit at night with your daughters and your wife and you do the rose and the thorn, right. Do you still do it?
BS: We still do it. Although, Malia is now at camp and Sasha is away at a friend’s house. So, it’s just me and Michelle.
BW: We’ll do it for you.
BS: Go ahead.
BW: In the last month, what has been the rose and what has been the thorn?
BS: Well, in the last month, the rose has to be a couple of days we took in Maine with Michelle and Sasha and Malia. We went on bike rides and hikes. And the girls are getting old enough now where they’re not quite teenagers yet, so they still like you. But they’re full of opinions and ideas and observations and it’s just a great age. Malia just turned 12 and Sasha just turned 9. And it couldn’t have been a better couple of days.
BW: Thorn?
[Uhs tell the truth of what isn't the truth.]
BS: Well, where do I begin, here? [Laughs] No, look. Obviously, the country has gone through a tough stretch – since I took office. When I was sworn in – I know you showed uh, uh the inauguration – we were losing at that time 750K jobs per month. The economy was shrinking at a pace of about 6.5%, which is unheard of since the uh, Great Depression. And so the last 20 months has been a nonstop effort [??] to restart the economy, to stabilize the financial system, to make sure that we’re creating jobs again instead of losing them. And in the midst of all that we’ve also had the oil spill, we’ve also had two wars, we’ve also had a pandemic – H1N1 – that uh, uh, we had to manage, and a whole host of other issues.
What has been gratifying is the fact that the economy now is starting to stabilize and grow again. And, what’s been satisfying is just seeing how resilient the American People are. As much as, as much as, uh, you-you said, uh, it’s been tough for me — the truth is, it’s not tough for me.
[Why not? Why isn't the POTUS finding things "tough"? Because he hasn't really dealt with anything?]
I mean uh-uh-uh, uh, you know, I’ve got people, uh, pundits, uh, on the news who may, uh, say things about me.
BW: You noticed.
[Say what you want about Pres Bush - he did not whine like this and he was hammered more in one year than barry has been his entire career. ]
BS: Of course! But-but you think what the American People have gone through – losing jobs, seeing their home values go down, their 401Ks declining. Those are the folks who I draw inspiration from, because I get letters every night from them and I read them, and, as tough as it’s been, they remain hopeful, they remain optimistic about America.
And-and so, so, uh, I don’t spend a lot of time uh, worrying about me – I spend a lot of time worrying about them.
[Is there anyone who believes this? He doesn't even believe it.]
BW: The one thorn, the biggest thorn this past month?
[Note where he stutters and hesitates.]
BS: Well, uh, you-you-you know, the reason it’s hard to answer is-is the things the media may focus on are not necessarily the things I focus on. I have to sign letters to parents of children who have been killed in Afghanistan or the husbands or wives of people who’ve been killed in battle. And that gives you a sense of perspective that is just different from what is going on on cable TV on any given day.
[What about signing the order to send them into battle - some to a sure death.]
JB: But can I follow up on something? Because you’ve really done a lot, I think. I mean, you’ve signed 200 + laws into being since you’re in office. You have – financial reform has taken place…you’ve got a health care…you put two women on the Supreme Court. I could go on and on about your accomplishments, and yet the right wing, through FOX NEWS and other outlets, they seem to be hijacking the narrative.
Where, are on your side, is the narrative? Where is your attack dog to come out and tell the American People, ‘Listen, this is what we did’?
[James Carville is too busy telling him what he didn't do.]
BS: That’s your job!
[THAT FOLKS IS THE MOST HONEST THING HE SAID AND IT IS THE REASON HE WAS ON THE SHOW - TO GET THE SCREAMING WHITEY LADIES BEHIND HIM AND BRING UP HIS POLL NUMBERS.]
JB: I do it. I do it. But I’m only one woman!
BS: Let me say this. When times are tough, as they have been, naturally there’s going to be a political argument that’s going on out there. And, you know, I volunteered for this job and politics is not beanbag. Politics is a contact sport and you expect people going at-atcha.
[He cannot get the word 'frustrate' out. And how do you take his frustration? Having to do it or not being able to do it?]
The-the one thing that does frustrate uh, uh frustrate me sometimes is the sense that, uh, we shouldn’t be campaigning all the time.
You know there’s a time to campaign, and then there’s a time to govern. And what we’ve tried to do over the last 20 months is to govern.
[Does anyone believe this? They know how to campaign only. And how long has he gone without getting his fix? Instead of going to the Gulf he flew out to SF (on taxpayer money) to raise money for Sen Boxer.]
So, on health care or on financial reform – right now we’ve got a big debate about how we can get small businesses more credit because they really generate more jobs than anybody else. And when you feel as if every single initiative that we’re doing is subject to Washington politics instead of is this good for the country, that can be frustrating. But having said that, look, there are legitimate differences to be had between the parties.
I’m not perfect. My administration’s not perfect. And-and a lot of this criticism I try to listen to and if I think it’s fair, then we try to correct it. Now, some of it, I’ll grant you, Joy, I-I tend not to think is fair. Michelle doesn’t think any of it is fair.
[Uses the missus to appeal to the masses.]
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PART 2
CrazyCelebrityFan
EH: I want to ask you about the country, too, because seeing you here, it truly is an honor to have you here as POTUS.
BS: Thank you.
EH: It does seem as though [sigh] we are a very divided states of America right now on so many issues, and I think, even those who did not vote for you, felt a hope there would be a uniting factor when you took office. Are you frustrated that this country still feels so divided and you have not been able yet to bring that unity?
BARRY: I am. I think right after the election there was a sense of hopefulness and unity. I think at the time people didn’t understand how bad the economic crisis was going to be. And, as a consequence, I think that, you know, the politics of the economic recovery, what we-the steps we had to take to make sure that the banking system didn’t collapse, what we had to do, uh, for the auto industry so that didn’t collapse…a lot of those became controversial. And, unfortunately we live at a time when a lot of times people are thinking about the next gen-election instead of the next generation. My hope is, that I’ve tried to set a tone in the debate that says, look, we can disagree without being disagreeable.
[Almost messed up the talking point - next election - next generation. And if he not thinking of the next election what is he doing there?]
EH: Right.
BS: But, the fact of the matter is is that the-the media culture right now loves conflict. And, if there’s a story about cooperation between the two parties, that story doesn’t make the news. [Nor does he mention it.] What makes the news is somebody who says something as outlandish or outrageous as possible – that’s what’s get focused on. And I think, frankly, the American People would rather hear a civil debate, but, that’s not what they’re getting a lot of times.
SS: Mr President, uhm, we had Shirley Sherrod, who was a USDA official fired over this racially-charged clip that was taken out of context – it was posted on a blog. When you took office, I think a lot of people thought that we were going to get beyond race, but it seems like every single day it’s something racially-charged. Do you think that we are still – we are still – America is racist?
BS: Look. I think that we have made so much progress. I had a conversation with Shirley Sherrod. Wonderful woman. She’s the first one to acknowledge how much progress we’ve made. I mean, think about her history and what she went through…her father uh, uh, being murdered and her growing up in the Jim Crow South and now she’s on the phone talking to the POTUS. And she had been on the South Lawn for a celebration of federal employees just a couple weeks earlier. And that’s a testament to the progress that we’ve made.
[It's the media's fault.]
What I do think happened in that situation is that a 24/7 media cycle that’s always looking for controversy, and oftentimes doesn’t uh get to the facts first, generated a phony controversy. A lot of people overreacted, including people in my administration. And, uh, part of the lesson that I want everybody to draw is: let’s not assume the worst of other people but let’s assume the best.
Let’s make sure we get the facts straight before we act.
And, when it comes to race, let’s acknowledge that, of course there’s still tensions out there, there’s still inequalities out there, there’s still discrimination out there – but we’ve made progress and if each of us take it upon ourselves to treat people with fairness and be able to uh, uh stand in somebody else’s shoes and see it through their eyes, and relate to where they’re coming from, then we can make more progress.
And when you look at the next generation — interesting, when I talk to Malia and Sasha’s friends — they have healthier attitudes around these issues than uh, Michelle - than-than-than our generation does. And w have healthier attitudes than previous generations.
[A not so Freudian slip about Michelle's racial attitudes.]
WG: That’s what I want to ask you.
BS: That’s the progress we want to make.
WG: Cuz you remember, I’m sure you’re old enough to remember this movie, but in 1967, “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”–
BS: I-I was only 6, Whoopi.
WG: I figured.
BW: The rest of us remember it more.
BS: I-I-I do remember the movie. Sidney Poitier – he’s smooth.
[He talks about Poitier and his mother's idealized version of black men in 'his' book. And he neglects to mention that Sidney Poitier, along with Jackie Robinson and Harry Belafonte were directly responsible for getting barry sr to Hawaii.]
WG: Please. He’s the greatest ever. But he says to his father: ‘You think of yourself as a Negro man, and I think of myself as a man, and that’s the difference.’ Is that still relevant today? I ask you, what are we? Who are we?
BS: Well, we are Americans. We share common hopes. We share common dreams. We share common aspirations. We’re going through common struggles. I mean, the fact of the matter is that everybody here — and I look at this audience and it’s representative of the country — everybody here is connected in some fashion. And our success and our children’s success is tied up together.
And so, I think most Americans feel that way. But, what is still true is is that, you know, uh, there’s still kind of a reptilian side of our brain uh-uh-uh that-that-that part of our brain, if somebody looks or sounds different, that there’s a part of us that’s cautious.
And what we have to do is fight against that. And that’s part of what Shirley Sherrod was trying to say in the speech — if you actually read the whole speech — she was acknowledging, I had my own biases based on my experiences, but, if I am able to look inward and reflect, then I can get beyond my biases. And that’s an exercise that all of us have to undergo, day in, day out, and it’s a constant struggle. And, uh-uh you know, it’s something that there’s nobody in America who doesn’t have to at some point think about their own racial attitudes.
[With all this overcoming, why is Ms Sherrod calling people racists she doesn't even know?]
BW: Can I ask you about that?
BS: But if we do, there is no reason we can’t overcome it.
BW: You do not describe, yourself as a black president, but that’s the way you’re described. Your mother was white. Why-would it be helpful, or why don’t you say: ‘I’m not a black president – I’m biracial’?
BS: Well, you know, when I was young, and, uh, going through the identity crises that any teenager goes through — I wrote a whole book about this.
BW: Yes. We all read it.
[Note how he says African, we, we're white]
BS: You know, uh, part of what I realized was that, uh, if the world-if the world saw me as African American, then that wasn’t something that I needed to run away from – that’s something that I could go ahead and embrace. And the interesting thing about the African American experience in this country is that we are sort of a mongrel people. I mean, we’re all kinda mixed up. [afterthought] And, now, that’s actually true for, uh, white America as well, but we just know more about it.
Uh, and-and so, I’m less interested in how we label ourselves.
I’m more interested in how we treat each other.
And if we’re treating each other right, then I can be African American, I can be multiracial, I can be you name it.
What matters, is am I showing people respect? Am I caring for one, uh, other people?
[And that is who he pretends to be - everything to everybody. Easily accomplished when one is empty inside.]
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PART 3
CrazyCelebrityFan
[CLIP FROM HIS ELECTION NITE SPEECH]
EH: We are glad to be back with President Barack Obama. Now, let’s take care of some business.
[He cuts her off to show power but also to talk about himself.]
BS: Can I just point out, I-I-I don’t have as much gray hair in that clip.
EH: I did notice. But I wasn’t going to bring it up.
JB: The presidency ages everyone, I noticed. Everyone.
EH: The stress of the job.
WG: But black don’t crack.
BW: But it turns gray.
EH: I want to get to something that is important to so many Americans. You had promised the stimulus bill would cap unemployment at 8%. We’re at near 10% across the country, 12% in my home state of Rhode Island. We’re in a state of chronic joblessness. Yet, and we heard in the beginning of the show as well, you claim that there’s “saved jobs”, a standard not been used before by any administration. [Sigh] It’s frustrating to hear that “saved jobs” boasting because it doesn’t feel that way to Americans when they don’t have jobs and they’re losing jobs. How can you continue and your administration continue to say that you are saving jobs when in fact people are losing jobs?
[Classic use of someone's name to put them in their place...kinda like the general and Sen Boxer.]
BARRY: Well, actually, Elisabeth, what’s happened is is that we’ve gained private sector jobs for the last five months. So, we were losing jobs when I was sworn in — as I said — 750K jobs per month. We’ve now gained jobs for 5 consecutive months in the private sector. You’re absolutely right that it’s not enough. And if you don’t have a job right now, the only answer that you want to hear is ‘I’m hired’.
EH: Right.
BS: So, the frustration that people have is entirely justified. Now, I have to tell you though — this isn’t just my standard, Elisabeth, or my administration’s standard — there was a report that came out by a couple of economists just today, including John McCain’s former economist, that said that had we not taken the steps that we had took, you would have actually seen millions of more jobs lost and we would be in a Great Depression. So, I know that’s not satisfying and it’s not good enough.
EH: I think the word “saved” is what’s troubling people.
BS: Well, it makes a difference, though, if your job was one of the ones that was saved. So I mean…I’ll-I’ll give, you a very specific example. The States got hammered as a consequence of this financial crisis.
[No one can say whether a job was "saved" or not. One either has a job or one does not.]
EH: They did.
BS: And if we had not provided immediate assistance to the States, they would have had to lay off teachers, police officers, firefighters. This was not just a matter of the jobs for those people – it’s also the services that would have been lost, kids who would not have had teachers in the classroom.
So, here-here’s the challenge. We went through the worst crisis since the Great Depression, and we are now bouncing back, but we’re not bouncing back as quick as we need to. There are specific steps that we can take that will make a difference.
So, for example, we’ve got a bill right now for small businesses — I just met with small business folks over in Edison, New Jersey, right before I came here. They want to grow, they want to expand. Some of them are having trouble getting credit. Some of them are want to buy new equipment, but are wondering can they get tax breaks that would help save them money. And this bill would address that. It has gotten tangled up in politics and my hope is we get it through.
But, my expectation is that we are going to keep on pushing and pushing and the economy is going to slowly get better. And, people were traumatized p so consumers now, they kind of pulled back a little bit. Businesses, who actually are profitable again and have a lot of cash, are hesitating in terms of investment. And slowly as people get more confident that this the recovery is stable and here to stay, then I think we’re going to do better.
And, I just want to give you one example of an industry where we are immediately seeing progress and that’s the auto industry — because I think it tells a good story about what we’ve gone through. Uh, you remember when we decided to go and restructure the auto industry, there were a lot of complaints out there. Why are we bailing out the car companies? Now, we had been bailing them out for years before that – just asking nothing in return. We finally said, you restructure. As a consequence, GM and Chrysler did not go through liquidation. You know have all those US auto companies showing a profit. They’ve rehired 55K workers. Uh, we are going to get all of the money back that we invested in those car companies. And, the best thing is we’re now creating an entirely new clean energy, uh, clean car technology around advanced batteries and whatnot that will make us a world leader.
Now, that progress is significant. But we’ve still got a long way to go before we’re all the way back. And, you know the one thing I want to just tell everybody here in this audience, don’t bet against American workers. Don’t bet against American ingenuity. We still have the best workers in the world, the best technology in the world, the best universities in the world. And if we get our mojo back over the next several months, then I am absolutely confident that we are going to be uh, doing terrific. But we’re going to have to make some fundamental structural changes as we go long.
[Our mojo back? Who's he talking about? The Dems or the US?]
BW: We have more time later on, but I’ve got to get to Afghanistan because it’s so much in the news right now. This week Congress voted to spend another what $59B for the war. But 100 democrats, much larger number than last year, refused to vote for your plan. And now we hear about a leak of secret documents…Pakistan may be friendlier as to the rebels than you are…supposedly we’re there because of al Qaeda…there are only 50 or so members of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Why don’t we leave? Why don’t we get out?
BS: Well, look. War is always tough. And I want to point out that when I came in, and during the campaign, I was very explicit – we need to bring an end to the war in Iraq and we need to refocus or strategy in Afghanistan cuz it’s not working. All the leaks that came out in this Wikileak thing that occurred this week just confirmed what I was saying during the campaign, which was, from 2004 onward, Afghanistan was under resourced, we took our eye off the ball, we were distracted with Iraq.
[Then why did barry refuse to go to Afghanistan and Pakistan as a senator? Why did he have no meetings about Afghanistan as a senator?]
BS: Now, here’s the good news. We are ending our combat operations in Iraq this month, because of the incredible heroism of our troops and because of the Iraqi people, we are now in a position to end our combat operations.
In Afghanistan, we’ve still got a lot of work to do. And the problem that we’ve got, is is that, although al Qaeda right now is primarily in Pakistan – in those border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan – it’s not hard for them to move across the borders – these-these are uncontrolled borders. And, the folks who perpetrated 9/11 and their allies are still congregated there. That is still the epicenter of terrorism targeting the United States. And what we need is to have a stable Afghanistan and a Pakistan that is not a sanctuary for terrorism.
Now, what I’ve said is we’re going to get an opportunity, we’re going to give an opportunity to the Afghan government to build up its security forces after 30 years of war, we’re going to help them with some development, we’re going to allow them to stabilize, and in July of 2011, next year, we’re going to start thinning out our troops.
[Thinning = what precisely?]
But it is important for us to understand that we’ve got real security interests there because, if you’ve just got chaos, what some people call Chaostan, in this region where there’s no functioning government, and warlords and terrorist affiliates are able to operate, that is going to be that much tougher for us to make sure that they are not attacking us.
So, I’m not interested in open-ended commitment. The sacrifices that our military have been making have been extraordinary. And I said, when I announced our new strategy, that at a certain point we’ve gotta focus on building – doing some nation building here in the United States – and not overseas. That’s got to be a priority. But we’ve got to finish the job that we started or it’s not going to get down.
JB: July 2011, draw down.
BS: We’re going to start drawing down.
EH: We thank you, Mr President.
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PART 4
CrazyCelebrityFan
JB: We’re back with President Obama. Ok, you thought those questions were hard now – these are really hard. I’m going to do a little lightning round. So you just give me your first impressions.
BS: Let’s go.
JB: Do you know that Lindsay Lohan is in jail?
BS: I actually know that, yes.
JB: You knew that?
BS: I did.
JB: Does Mel Gibson need anger management?
BS: Uh, I-I-I
BW: You want to go back to Afghanistan?
BS: Let me answer the Afghanistan. No, l look, I haven’t seen a Mel Gibson movie in a while.
JB: The tapes are better than any movie he ever made. Oh, please. Should Snooki run as mayor of Wasilla?
BS: I’ve got to admit, I don’t know who Snooki is.
[Lie]
SS: What?! GTL, Mr President. GTL.
JB: One more because obviously you don’t know any pop culture, which is good news because we don’t want you wasting–
BS: I knew Lindsay was in jail.
JB: Yeah, how did you know that?
BS: I don’t know. I just saw it on the internet.
SS: Mr President, do you tweet?
BS: I don’t tweet.
SS: You don’t tweet?
EH: Facebook?
BS: I don’t tweet. I don’t tweet on a regular basis. I think there is an official president’s tweet. But some 20-year-old is doing a lot of tweeting.
BW: They took your email away when you came in. But do you do it on the side?
BS: You know, I have a Blackberry, but only 10 people have it, and I’ve got to admit, it’s no fun. Because they think it’s probably going to be subject to the Presidential Records Act, so nobody wants to send me the real juicy stuff. It’s all very official, you know, Mr President, you have a meeting coming up and we’d like to brief you. That’s all.
EH: Have you thought about an iPhone at all, making the switch?
BS: I haven’t made the switch yet. I do have a pod. I’ve got a great iPod.
[So does the Queen of England...with barry's speeches.]
WG: Can I ask you, what’s the first couple songs on your iPod?
BS: You name – you name a song, I’ve got it. I’ve got Jay-Z on there…I’ve got Frank Sinatra on there…I’ve got Maria Callas on there.
SS: Justin Bieber?
BS: I do not have Justin Bieber on there. But I have met Justin Bieber. He came to sing at the White House. He’s a very nice young man.
SS: Mr President, are you going to Chelsea Clinton’s wedding?
BS: I am not going. And I have to say, it would be tough enough having one president at a wedding — you don’t want two presidents at a wedding. Well the Secret Service…and everything getting magged as they’re going in…and all the gifts getting unwrapped and ripped up.
[Ms Walters impersonates the journalist she once was and asks the real question]
BW: Were you invited to Chelsea Clinton’s wedding?
BS: You know, I was not invited because I think that Hillary and Bill, properly, want to keep this as a thing for Chelsea and her soon-to-be husband. And I am going to have the exact -I’m letting you guys know now, y’all probably will not be invited to Malia’s wedding or Sasha’s wedding. Because one of the things that Michelle and I are so adamant about is making sure that Malia and Sasha have as normal a life as possible. And I know Bill and Hillary, who are terrific parents, had that same attitude when it came to Chelsea.
BW: Have boys entered the picture yet for your girls?
BS: Thankfully, no!
SS: Mr President, if you want to send the girls to a great [unintelligible] normal women that you ever want to meet.
WG: I’m not babysitting. I’m a grandma. I’m not babysitting.
BS: Actually, they’re old enough where they’re going to be doing the babysitting. [points to Elisabeth] They’ll come over and help out.
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PART 5
CrazyCelebrityFan
WG: We are back with President Barack Obama. President Obama, you’ve been in office 18 months. Clearly you have not begun to walk on water, though people expected you to right after the election. You were told you were too slow on responding to BP or too fast on Ms Sherrod. You haven’t explained yourself. No one understands. Sir, can you win as president?
JB: Are you on Zoloft is what we want to know.
[That really is all audience wants to know.]
BS: Look. When I look back over these last 20 months, they have been as challenging but as satisfying as any in my life. And I’m going to be able to say at the end of just the first half of my first term that every American in this country is soon going to be able to get health insurance even if they’ve got a preexisting condition.
[Soon? Not. Every American? Not. Stump slogans.]
I’m going to be able to say that tobacco companies can’t market their products to kids.
I’m going to be able to say we’ve got a credit card law in place that makes sure that you don’t have hidden fees and that you know exactly what’s going on when it comes to credit card companies.
We’ve got the toughest financial regulatory reform law since the Great Depression and we’re going to be able to enforce these laws so there are no more taxpayer bailouts.
We’ve saved an economy from a great depression and we have created, I think, a whole range of reforms on education that are going to pay off over the next 10 years so that more kids are going to college, more kids are studying math, more kids are studying science.
EH: Will they have jobs when they’re out of there?
[Philosophy]
BS: They’re going to create these jobs. That’s the thing is that when our kids are doing well in school, when we’ve got the best-trained workforce, when they are innovating and creating jobs through small businesses, that’s when America succeeds. And so I feel very optimistic, and I do think that the reason I seem calm all the time, even if sometimes we’re going through some turbulence, is I try to take the long view. I try to say, if I wake up today and I know I’m doing a good job, somewhere down the road, that’s going to pay off, and people are going to be able to look back and say he made that decision based on what’s best for the country as opposed to short-term politics. I think that’s the best way to go.
[Does that sound reality based? Sometimes we're going through turbulence...take the long view....which is why there has been no job improvement.]
BW: The fact that you’re rating is so low does that bother you?
BS: Washington is obsessed with polls. So, I can look historically and I can say my polls at this point are higher than Ronald Reagan’s polls were, or higher than Bill Clinton’s polls were, or higher than Jimmy Carter’s were. But, the truth of the matter is that doesn’t make too much difference because these things change very quickly. And what I constantly am focused on is – am I doing what’s right for the country? Am I making the best possible decisions that I can be making? And if I do that, then I have confidence that I’ll be rewarded because I think that good policy is good politics.
[Rewarded? He talks about himself in the future. He has only campaign answers.]
BW: What would you like your legacy to be?
BS: I’d like the American People to be able to look back and say this was a time when we tackled a bunch of problems that we’d been putting off for too long. Health care. We’d been putting it off for too long and finally got it solved. Education. We’re finally making the schools better for our kids. [HOW?] We need an energy policy so we’re not dependent on foreign oil. And we’re dealing with challenges to our environment.
And, and, as I said before, I am so optimistic about America cuz I’m optimistic about the American People. Every time I travel, every time I get out of Washington and I sit down and I talk to folks, they are generous, they are strong, they are resilient, they are full of imagination, they are full of drive, they are full of pluck and there’s no reason why America will continue – shouldn’t continue to be the, uh, greatest country on earth for decades and centuries to come.
[Decades and centuries? How about forever. Shouldn't continue to be? How about will continue to be.]
But we just have to remind ourselves of what, uh, makes us great, and, uh, hopefully I’ll be able to help lead the country through this difficult time so that we, uh, continue on this extraordinary journey that we’ve been on.
[Those are candidate words not a sitting president's. Extraordinary journey for whom?]
BW: Mr President, all five of us, we’re delighted that you were here and honored to have you. Thank you.
BS: I had a wonderful time. Thank you.
