60 Minutes, November 16, 2008Barack and Michelle Obama, First Post Election Interview

Since Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States 12 days ago, he haslargely remained out of sight, getting high-level government briefings and conferring with histransition team. But he surfaced on Friday afternoon in Chicago, alongside his wife Michelle togive

60 Minutes

his first post-election interview.It covers a wide range of subjects including the economy, the ailing automobile industry, thegovernment's $700 billion bailout program, their visit to the White House, the emotions of election night and the quest for a family dog. You'll hear all of it. But we begin with the president-elect and his thoughts about the new job.

Steve Kroft:

So here we are.

President-elect Barack Obama:

Here we are.

Kroft:

How's your life changed in the last ten days?

Mr. Obama:

Well, I tell you what, there seem to be more people hovering around me. That's for sure. And, on the other hand, I'm sleeping in my own bed over the last ten days, which is quite atreat. Michelle always wakes up earlier than I do. So listen to her roaming around and havingthe girls come in and, you know, jump in your bed. It's a great feeling. Yeah.

Kroft:

Has this been easier than the campaign trail?

Mr. Obama:

Well, it's different. I think that during the campaign it is just a constant frenetic,forward momentum. Here, I'm stationary. But the issues come to you. And we've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of problems, a lot of big challenges.

Kroft:

Have there been moments when you've said, 'What did I get myself into?'

Mr. Obama:

Surprisingly enough, I feel right now that I'm doing what I should be doing. Thatgives me a certain sense of calm. I will say that the challenges that we're confronting areenormous. And they're multiple. And so there are times during the course of a given a daywhere you think, 'Where do I start?'

Kroft:

What have you been concentrating on this week?

Mr. Obama:

Couple of things. Number one, I think it's important to get a national security teamin place because transition periods are potentially times of vulnerability to a terrorist attack. Wewanna make sure that there is as seamless a transition on national security as possible.

Obviously the economy. Talking to top economic advisors about how we're gonna create jobs,how we get the economy back on track and what do we do in terms of some long-term issueslike energy and healthcare. And how do we sequence those things in a way that we can actuallyget things through Congress?

Kroft:

Are you in sync with Secretary Paulson in terms of how the $700 billion is being used?

Mr. Obama:

Well, look, Hank Paulson has worked tirelessly under some very difficultcircumstances. We've got an unprecedented crisis, or at least something that we have not seensince the Great Depression. And I think Hank would be the first one to acknowledge thatprobably not everything that's been done has worked the way he had hoped it would work. ButI'm less interested in looking backwards than I am in looking forwards.

Kroft:

The government has spent almost $300 billion out of the TARP program.

Mr. Obama:

Right.

Kroft:

Money that was set aside to help the financial industry. And nothing much has changed if you look at it. Nothing much has changed. It’s $300 billion. Why is that?

Mr. Obama:

I think the part of the way to think about it is things could be worse. I mean, wecould have seen a lot more bank failures over the last several months. We could have seen aneven more rapid deterioration of the economy, even a bigger drop in the stock market. So partof what we have to measure against is what didn't happen and not just what has happened.Having said that, there's no doubt that we have not been able yet to reset the confidence in thefinancial markets and in the consumer markets and among businesses that allow the economyto move forward in a strong way. And my job as president is gonna be to make sure that werestore that confidence.

CBS) Kroft:

Once you become president, are there things that you'll change?

Mr. Obama:

Well, you know I think we still have to see how this thing unfolds over the nextcouple of months. One area that I'm concerned about, and I've said this publicly, is we have notfocused on foreclosures and what's happening to homeowners as much as I would like. Wehave the tools to do it. We've gotta set up a negotiation between banks and borrowers so thatpeople can stay in their homes. That is gonna have an impact on the economy as a whole. And,you know, one thing I'm determined is that if we don't have a clear focused program for homeowners by the time I take office, we will after I take office.

Kroft:

Are you being consulted by Secretary Paulson?Is he telling you what's going on?

Mr. Obama:

You know what we've done is we've assigned somebody on my transition team

who interacts with him on a daily basis. And, you know, we are getting the information that'srequired to and we're making suggestions in some circumstances about how we think theymight approach some of these problems.

Kroft:

Are they listening?

Mr. Obama:

Well, you know, that we'll find out.

Kroft:

People are comparing this to 1932.

Mr. Obama:

Right.

Kroft:

Is that a valid comparison, do you think?

Mr. Obama:

Well, keep in mind that 1932, 1933 the unemployment rate was 25 percent, inchingup to 30 percent. You had a third of the country that was ill housed, ill clothed, unemployed.We're not going through something comparable to that. But I would say that this is as bad aswe've seen since then. And if we don't take some significant steps then it could get worse.

Kroft:

You have a situation right now where you have General Motors, which is in dire straits.

Mr. Obama:

Yeah.

Kroft:

May run out of cash by the end of the year, maybe by the end of certainly, if we believewhat we read in the papers, by the time you take office.

Mr. Obama:

Yeah. Well, let's see how this thing plays itself out. For the auto industry tocompletely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment, not just for individualfamilies but the repercussions across the economy would be dire. So it's my belief that we needto provide assistance to the auto industry. But I think that it can't be a blank check.So my hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress,the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance isconditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all the stakeholders coming together witha plan what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like? So that we are creating a bridgeloan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere. And that's, I think, what you haven'tyet seen. That's something that I think we're gonna have to come up with.

Kroft:

Are there a lot of people that think that the country would probably be better off andGeneral Motors might be better off if it was allowed to go into bankruptcy?

Mr. Obama:

Well, you know, under normal circumstances that might be the case in the sensethat you'd go to a restructuring like the airlines had to do in some cases. And then they comeout and they're still a viable operation. And they're operating even during the course of bankruptcy. In this situation, you could see the spigot completely shut off so that it would notpotentially permit GM to get back on its feet. And I think that what we have to do is to recognize