Barack Obama and Michelle met up with CBS' Steve Kroft on "60 Minutes" this evening. Obama was well-spoken, characteristically cryptic, and seemed to be whistling a different tune than we heard from him on the trail.
For instance, did you know that both parties bear some responsibility for the housing crisis?
Kroft: How high a priority are you placing on re-regulation of the financial markets?
Mr. Obama: ... And keep in mind that the deregulation process, it wasn't just one party. I think there's a lot of blame to spread around.
He'll apparently be postponing the lowering of sea levels in favor of lowered expectations:
Mr. Obama: And I think that's what the American people expect. You know, they're not expecting miracles. I think if you talk to the average person right now that they would say, 'Well, look, you know well, we're having a tough time right now. We've had tough times before.' 'And you know, we don't expect a new president can snap his fingers and suddenly everything is gonna be okay. But what we do expect is that the guy is gonna be straight with us. We do expect that he's gonna be working really hard for us.'
Also, suddenly the American people aren't looking for speeches; they're looking for action:
Kroft: Are you gonna make a lot of speeches? Are you gonna talk a lot to the American people on television and radio?
Mr. Obama: You know, I'm not sure that the American people are looking for a lot of speeches. I think what they're looking for is action.
And, for good measure, a "no" to a new New Deal. It'd be encouraging if you could ever take him at face value:
Mr. Obama: I think our basic principle that this is a free market system and that that has worked for us, that it creates innovation and risk taking, I think that's a principle that we've gotta hold to as well. But what I don't wanna do is get bottled up in a lot of ideology and is this conservative or liberal. My interest is finding something that works.
And whether it's coming from FDR or it's coming from Ronald Reagan, if the idea is right for the times then we're gonna apply it. And things that don't work we're gonna get rid of.
