Presidential chat is late-night coup for Leno
LOS ANGELES -- President Obama promised fresh aid to help hard-hit California deal with home mortgage foreclosures Thursday while cautioning Americans that "it's going to take a little bit of time" for his administration to fix the financial and economic crisis.
"It's going to cost some money. It's not going to be pretty. People are going to be frustrated," Obama told a questioner at a town-hall-style session at a school here attended by about 1,000 people. "And we are going to get it done."
The president was wrapping up a two-day visit to the nation's most populous state, one that gave him a sizable majority vote in November.
He also taped an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, in which he told host Leno about life in the White House, from the search for a family dog to pickup basketball games under the watchful eyes of Secret Service agents.
"I don't think I get the hard fouls I used to," Obama said.
He also said he had been practicing bowling. "I bowled a 129," Obama said. "It was like Special Olympics or something." The White House issued a statement saying Obama's remark "in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics," the Politico reported.
Obama later called Special Olympics Chairman Tim Shriver from Air Force One to apologize for the joke, Shriver said Friday morning on ABC's Good Morning America. "He expressed his disappoinment and apologized," Shriver told GMA. "He was very sincere."
Shriver added that "words hurt and words do matter and these words that in some respect can be seen as humiliating ... do cause pain." He added that he hopes the president's gaffe is "a teachable moment for our country."
Obama, the first sitting president to appear on the show, told Leno he was stunned when he learned of the bonuses that insurance giant AIG was paying to retain certain employees as it goes through a restructuring with taxpayer money. Obama said the payments raise moral and ethical problems and that the administration's going to do everything it can to get them back. But Obama defended his Treasury Department, which insisted on protecting the paying of the bonuses in the stimulus bill.
As he did a day earlier at a fairgrounds meeting in Costa Mesa, Calif., Obama encountered largely adoring and enthusiastic crowds at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in downtown L.A. Attendees had placed their names on an online site and were selected by lottery.
"I was inspired," said Tonantzin Castro, 31, of Pasadena, who said she was unemployed and looking to Obama for help for the jobless. "He's not a miracle worker; it was just his general ideas of hope. Watching the news is so demoralizing, and you start to lose that hope."
Across the street from the school's gym where the president spoke, several hundred people waved signs in favor of legalizing illegal immigrants. Others reflected the frustrations of California's own budget crisis that has led Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to issue layoff notices to thousands of state workers and prompted similar cuts by local schools. "Save our teachers," many of the demonstrators chanted.
Acknowledging that California has an unemployment rate over 10% and one of the highest foreclosure rates anywhere, Obama said California would receive $145 million in federal housing aid to help communities hard hit by foreclosures. He said the money would be used to buy and rehabilitate vacant homes and provide loans to low-income working families needing assistance.
He said homeowners could determine whether they are eligible at a new website, makinghomeaffordable.gov.
Contributing: David Jackson in Washington