Obama: Regrets of Year One
EmailBelow is an excerpt from my exclusive interview with President Obama today in which he reflects on his first year in office:
PRESIDENT OBAMA: If there's one thing that I regret this year, is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us, that I think we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are and why we have to make sure those institutions are matching up with those values. And that I do think is a mistake of mine. I think the assumption was, if I just focus on policy, if I just focus on the, this provision, or that law, or are we making a good, rational decision here –
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: That people would get it.
OBAMA: That people will get it. And I think that, you know, what they've ended up seeing is this feeling of remoteness and detachment where, you know, there's these technocrats up here, these folks who are making decisions. Maybe some of them are good, maybe some of them aren't. But do they really get us and what we're going through? And I think that I can do a better job of that and partly because I do believe that we're in a stronger position now than we were in a year ago.
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More of my interview tonight on World News with Diane Sawyer, a special edition of Nightline and of course, tomorrow on Good Morning America.
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“If there’s one thing that I regret this year, is that we were so busy just getting stuff done and dealing with the immediate crises that were in front of us…”
He’s joking, right? How many vacations did this President take in his first year of office? He couldn’t be bothered to interrupt his golf game to talk to the American people about the Panty Bomber, when all many wanted was a word of reassurance from their Commander-in-Chief. Immediate crises? Like flying overseas trying to get the Olympics in Chicago when virtually all the analysts agreed it not only wouldn’t help, but would likely hurt US chances? Like attending the Copenhagen Summit where he damn near sold our entire economy to other states in perpetuity to no benefit to ourselves?
Mr. Obama, sir, you’ve gotta stop drinking the kool-aid.
Posted by: Julie Anne Burton | January 20, 2010, 2:33 pm 2:33 pm
If your accusing ppl of drinking this glenn beck “kool aid” trick you kinda dumb down what ever credibility you MIGHT have had…..
you can’t have it both ways – first the media is complaining that this pres. is spending way too much time speaking to the media – more than any other pres. and now your saying its wasn’t enough and how can a pres. speak to the public without researching what the problem is and do you really expect us to believe you really wanted to get some ‘comfort’ from this pres. given your hysterical twist of the facts. PPL need to stop blaming this pres. for ALL of the REPUB. disasters that we now have to defuse. He isn’t god and can’t save the world in 90 days and so what if he went to hawaii for vacation – Bush spent his vacation living it up during the biggest hurricane disaster in America.called Katrina. Nice try but its shallow and misconstrued……
Posted by: amber | January 20, 2010, 2:44 pm 2:44 pm
Brown ran against this pork ridden bribe to get it passed health care, and evidently you still dont get it the voters want good honest health care reform that helps people not special interests like this 2000 page monstrosity.
Posted by: earl | January 20, 2010, 2:47 pm 2:47 pm
Note to Julie: He was and still is cleaning up the massive mess left by eight years of Bush/Cheney and feed-the-rich Reaganomics. It never ceases to amaze me how short-sighted the average American is. The Republicans spent 25 years creating this and people like Julie are whining because it hasn’t been fixed in 12 months. Get real.
Posted by: Thomas | January 20, 2010, 2:48 pm 2:48 pm
Obama is about ME Me, what I want to pass, the heck with the Repubs. and Blue dogs . He will lie, bribe and pay off anyone that will go along with HIS plans. He is the most arrogant self-absorbed president we ever had. The people have had enough of the broken promises and lies!C-Span and transparency. Broken promise. Ban earmarks-the first spending bill he signed had over 9,000 earmarks. Trying to cram healthcare on the people when they clearly DON’T want it. People would be fined if they don’t buy into it. Putting bills online for 5 days. Didn’t happen-he broke that promise when he signed his first bill, the Fair Pay Act. Cutting spending. Ha. What a joke on that promise! Sorry, you had your chance! Out of here in 2012!!!!!
Posted by: TXAR.55 | January 20, 2010, 2:54 pm 2:54 pm
At least Obama wasn’t hiding out in an airplane like Bush on 9/11
Posted by: Thomas | January 20, 2010, 2:57 pm 2:57 pm
what happens to the other posts entered here? why do they disappear? is there another page that I am not seeing or are you really deleting comments on an open forum. That could get you kicked off twitter
Posted by: onevotefromwi | January 20, 2010, 3:23 pm 3:23 pm
One thing he could do to win back support would be to put the Health care negotiations on C-SPAN like he promised.
Posted by: SLEZE | January 20, 2010, 4:13 pm 4:13 pm
So I guess the American people are “stupid” because they didn’t “get it”?
What arrogance! No, mr. President, the American people do get it, that your priorities are to keep your promises to SEIU. What are you and those congresspeople doing to create jobs? Unemployment is through the roof and blaming it on Bush doesn’t cut it anymore. They also GET that this health-care bill vote is anything but transparent like you promised. Why don’t you listen to the American People and stop being so full of yourself.
Posted by: Dangler69 | January 20, 2010, 4:46 pm 4:46 pm
I’m sick of this continual cycle:
Republican: Obama is such an idiot.
Democrat: Yeah, well, Bush was a bigger idiot.
Republican: At least he wasn’t full of himself.
Democrat: Well, so what, we’re still cleaning up your mess.
Ask yourself this, are either of these guys and what they did or didn’t do really worth your breath defending?
Posted by: James | January 20, 2010, 4:54 pm 4:54 pm
okay…what’s with the “feed the rich Reaganomics”? The Reagan years were the best year we’ve had in my adult life, things were good, it was easier. Nothing has been the same since. He was the best president in my life-time. It’s only gone downhill, on an ever spiriling cycle, since then.
Posted by: tat | January 20, 2010, 5:10 pm 5:10 pm
While I dont agree with nor did I vote for Obama being president is a thankless job. The “hope” I believe was that he could make a “change” even though he was under qualified for the position. Many thought his handlers would have everything in control when in fact everything went out of control and congress went nuts! If we have anyone to point fingers at let’s point fingers at those knuckleheads we elected and fix things our local representatives and the Senate. Let these people with huge egos and even bigger bank accounts understand what it is like to be a regular hard working american trying to take care of their families.
I must say after defending Obama as much as could with my prior comment, he again has shown us all by his statements how inferior he thinks we all are and that we need to be led by the hand to understand anything. I for one am tired of his rhetoric and condesending attitude towards all of us
Posted by: Kenji | January 20, 2010, 5:13 pm 5:13 pm
Maybe he lost touch with the American people because he was so busy bowing to foreign dignitaries while on his “apology tour”.
Posted by: ctmom | January 20, 2010, 6:38 pm 6:38 pm
Obama is simply Damned if he Do And Damned if he Don’t… So what else is new in Politics ???? Personally I think he merits another golfing vacation in Hawaii.
Umm Whatever!!!
Posted by: Amazon Woman | January 20, 2010, 8:45 pm 8:45 pm
George – Don’t feed Obama answers. He has NO trouble at all putting down the American people. “That people will get it.” ???!? People are getting a message, but it is not the one you want them to have because they can and DO think for themselves. Obama is not listening to the American people. Where are the jobs???
Posted by: tm | January 21, 2010, 2:43 am 2:43 am
I clearly remember him telling folks who opposed his agenda to be quiet and get get out of the way. He has no repsect for the people and what they are saying. But he has delivered on his campaign promise of transparency because most people can see right through him . He became president by misrepresenting himself as a centrist and still mispresents himself today.
I think he has lost the confidence of most independents. He will jam his own view of what America should be in his mind and say whatever he needs to say to get IT there.
Posted by: Mark | January 21, 2010, 5:32 am 5:32 am
Good riddens to a bumbling incompetent bureaucrat – another one-termer. Maybe he can take a bunch of those other dumbass bureaucrats along with him.
Posted by: Josey | January 21, 2010, 6:17 am 6:17 am
President Obama has delivered on absolutely none of his campaign promises.
1- Promise = fix America’s relations with the world.
FAIL, the world still views us the same as they did one year ago, evidenced by the continued effort of terrorist to cause harm to Americans, both abroad and here at home.
2- Promise= fix the economy.
FAIL, in December 2008 the unemployment rate was 7.4%, one year later it 10%. Where are all the jobs he promised to create? Foreclosure rates are up 20%. Where is the help he promised to family’s to help them stay in their homes? He has increase government spending to the point that our grandchildren will be paying for the bailout that resulted in companies taking taxpayer money for bailout then paying their senior people big performance bonuses (AIG) or taking the money and then declaring bankruptcy (GM).
3- Promise= pull out of Iraq.
FAILING. His time line was 18 months and as of the 12 month mark there is still no plan to withdraw our troops. My brother is on orders to deploy to Iraq for another 12-18 month tour. That tells me that the military at least is planning to stay a while. (He still has 6 months but it’s unrealistic to think that all of our soldiers AND equipment can be withdrawn in that short a time)
4- Promise= health-insurance reform.
He has FAILED to bridge the gap between the parties and deliver a comprehensive health care reform bill. Now that the Democratic Party no longer has a strangle hold in Congress his odds of ever delivering one have fallen.
5- Promise= remake federal energy and education policy.
FAIL, why did my energy bill go up 5% here in California? Why are my children’s schools sending home requests for parents to supply toilet paper, wax for the floors, and money for text books? If these are the changes he promised then we where better off without his change.
6- Promise= change the ways of Washington.
FAIL, Washington still operates the same as it did one year ago. Senators and Congressmen still entertain the lobbyists from large corporations and take their money then either pass laws that favor those corporations, or look the other way while those corporations gouge the last dollar from the American tax payer.
7-Promise= close Guantánamo.
FAIL, it’s still operating one year later.
8- Promise= transparency in his administration.
FAIL, he rammed a $700 Billion bailout bill thru so fast (3 weeks after he took office) that nobody even read the bill, including those that voted for it. AND then that bill only made the rich richer and the poor poorer. (See number 2).
Posted by: stan | January 21, 2010, 7:27 am 7:27 am
I think the President is doing a brilliant job.
You are all very good at blaming why don’t you get on board and clean the mess
You must agree there is a problem and the President is not the cause of it.
Let the GOP clean the mess they have an answer to the problem.
The World is watching and we are having a laugh
Posted by: Pammy | January 21, 2010, 8:23 am 8:23 am
We’re in a better position than we were a year ago? Maybe we’re not in dire fear of the 2nd Great Depression (though the Great Recession is causing enough anguish,) but the Democrats certainly aren’t in a better position to go forward than they were a year ago.
Posted by: Jeff Thompson | January 21, 2010, 2:09 pm 2:09 pm
Obama’s problem is that HIS core values are not the same as most of the people of America. Nor are his core values those of the Founding Fathers of this great country. His administration is filled with admirers of Marx, Mao, Stalin, Chavez ad nauseum. Obama did say that we should judge him by who he surrounds himself with. Case closed.
Posted by: Bob Billa | January 22, 2010, 4:07 am 4:07 am
Julie Anne Burton, you hit the nail on the head,Obama and the Democrats don’t get it now but they will come November.
Posted by: Johnny L | January 22, 2010, 11:42 am 11:42 am
During the Reagan years unemployment was over 10% for 10 months and over 9% for 17 months. If these were the best years, Obama isn’t doing so bad.
Posted by: Ed | January 24, 2010, 7:12 pm 7:12 pm
“Just Getting Stuff done” – It’s the Jobs stupid.
Posted by: noconfidence | January 27, 2010, 2:00 am 2:00 am
Don’t forget the great 80′s when we went through 2 recessions during his reign. He left Clinton a very deep recession to deal with. Tax cuts only work with high inflation, high interest rates and high unemployment – take an economics class – tax cuts can be detrimental to a society. Remember it didn’t work with Bush. People had to pay their bills, not consumer goods that would spark the economy. The housing bubble was ignored and allowed to prop up the economy but it was artificial. If debt has become the American way, the empire is certainly on its way to collapse.
Posted by: David English | January 28, 2010, 2:54 am 2:54 am
To all crying Americans. Roll up your sleeves and start doing something for this country.
Posted by: Peter | January 28, 2010, 7:54 am 7:54 am
GDP grew in the 3rd and 4th quarters, jobs are always lagging the numbers recovery in each recession. Those thinking about long-term recovery, know the enviroment will be a big winner in the conversion to biofuels & biopower — saw a cool site; Balkingpoints ; incredible satellite view of earth
Posted by: MikeW | January 30, 2010, 4:48 pm 4:48 pm
Obama thinks he needs to do a better job “politicking with us” because we just don’t get it. He is the one who refuses to hear, listen, understand,or act on behalf of the people who are screeming at him and his administration.
They are determined to push their agenda down our throats, like it or not.
There is a new mandate now and He just doesn’t get it.
Posted by: Becky Brown | February 1, 2010, 8:14 pm 8:14 pm