Game day: Barack Obama has the ball, Joe Biden's blocking... There isn't much time for the "inconsequential" around the White House, the president said todday, but NBC found some in its pre-game interview. (Photo by Joshua Roberts / Bloomberg News)
by Mark Silva
Come next Super Bowl Sunday, President Barack Obama said in a pre-game interview with the Super Bowl-broadcasting NBC today, a substantial number of American troops will have come home from Iraq. Meanwhile, Obama predicts, the Steelers, whom he is backing today, will "eek out'' a victory tonight.
Obama, seated open-collar with NBC's Matt Lauer for an interview at the White House, where the president has invited several, both Democratic and Republican, congressmen for a Super Bowl Party, spoke about the "sobering moments'' of the office he has assumed, while gamely answering Lauer's game-day questions.
"There have been a couple of times, some wonderful, some sobering,'' Obama said of his first days in office. "Whenever you take that walk down the Colonnade and you go to the Oval Office, I do think you get that sense of history that you're now part of...''
The "sobering moments'' - signing letters to the families of killed soldiers.
"You don't have a lot of time to focus on inconsequential stuff,'' Obama said.
That didn't stop Lauer from pressing about that super-secure BlackBerry that Obama has been allowed.
"I didn't bring it down here,'' the president told his interviewer. "It's like Inspector Gadget, if you touched it, it might blow up.'' Asked about the security measure, Obama said: "The worls... It turns into a car, if I have to make a quick getaway.''
Only "a handful''of people have the address, Obama said - his daughters certainly can reach him. As for other world leaders - "typically, world leaders are going to contract me through the Oval Office... They know how to contact me.''
Or asking about that US Weekly magazine cover on which the portrait of the First Family has been cropped to cut the father out, in favor of an insert of a diet-impaired Jessica Simpson. "It's a little hurtful,'' Obama joked, with a comment about Simpson: "who is in a weight battle, apparently''
Asked if people would sleep well if they saw the daily intelligence briefings that he is now seeing, Obama said: "We've got real threats, and we have to remain vigilant, but the quality of our armed forces has never been better... It gives you enormous confidence. They are on the case day in and day out... But there is no doubt that we cannot afford to let up, because there are people ready to do us harm.''
Asked if "a substantial number'' of troops will be home by the next Super Bowl Sunday, the president said: "Yes... we're going to roll out... what our intentions are for Iraq, as well as for Afghanistan... I think we have a sense, now that the Iraqis have had a significant election without significant violence,'' that the Iraqis are now in a position to take "more responsibility.''
Asked about the economy, and how much worse it will get before it gets better:
"I think we're going to be in for a tough several months,'' he said. "As soon as Congress moves forward on the recovery plan, we are going to move forward... I am confident we will get the economy back on track....''
As for the Republican opposition to his stimulus plan - unanimous in the first House vote last week: "The important thing was getting the thing passed... I've done extraordinary outreach to the Republicans... I am confident that by the time we have the final package on the floor we are going to see substantial support.''
Inevitably, there was some football talk here.
This evening, with the NFL about to kick off its annual playoff, can the college-football-playoff-promoting president look Florida, with its 27 Electoral votes, in the eye and tell the college champs that there really oughta be a playoff?
"Where's the camera?'' Obama asked, turning toward it. "Congratulations, Florida, for an outstanding season,'' Obama said, adding: "Wouldn't you feel better if you had beat every team that is out there through a playoff system?''
Today, Obama is with the Steelers, whose owner endorsed him during the Democratic primaries: "Rooney didn't jut endorse me. That guy was out at steel plants campaigning for me....''
"I think the Steelers are going to eke it out in a close one.''
Comments
The Matt Lauer interview was bogus...what a bunch of dumb questions.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | February 1, 2009 8:04 PM
The Steelers will "eek out" a victory tonight.
Man is this guy good.
I'm guessing W predicted the Cards by 30.
Posted by: Bubba ✔ | February 2, 2009 2:09 AM
Howard Dean and Kucinich played a huge part in energizing if not winning the vote.
Why don't we get REAL energy policy---small scale solar and wind---not for ENERGY PROFITEERS.
AND THE BAILOUT!!! you could give 6600 dollars to each american household for the 700 billion they're giving to wall street fatcats who OWN politicians by buying media ads for their campaigns!
Perhaps you forgot to mention that Daschle's wife is a prominent lobbyist?
Or that Carol Browner's husband, the new Energy Czar, is a lobbyist for energy companies.
WASHINGTON -- Linda Hall Daschle is one of the most important aviation lobbyists in town. Ms. Daschle is also the wife of Tom Daschle, whom President-elect Barack Obama has chosen to be the next secretary of health and human services.
Tom Downey is the founder and chairman of a lobbying firm with dozens of clients, including several with interests in energy policy. Mr. Downey is also the husband of Carol M. Browner, Mr. Obama's likely choice to be the next White House energy czar.
Ms. Daschle has been a lobbyist since 1997. Some early clients had an interest in health policy, like the drug maker Amgen and the tobacco giant Philip Morris. In recent years she has mainly represented aviation companies like Lockheed Martin Ms. Browner, a former administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, is a principal at the Albright Group, an international consulting firm. She married Mr. Downey in 2007.
He had been a Democratic congressman from Long Island from 1975 to 1993, but lost his seat after it was revealed that he was among several lawmakers who had frequently overdrawn their House bank accounts without penalty, and that his wife at the time was a House bank auditor.
Mr. Downey later founded a lobbying firm whose past clients included energy companies like Chevron and the Standard Renewable Energy Group, several foreign countries, and the Albright Group. In 2006 the couple worked together on issues related to a Dubai firm's purchase of a United States port operator.
http://tinyurl.com/6dr3lp
This is how you run a "lobbyist free" administration
Posted by: ASK DENNIS KUCINICH FOR HELP ASK HOWARD DEAN FOR HELP | February 2, 2009 6:51 AM
The Matt Lauer interview was bogus...what a bunch of dumb questions.
Posted by: lochnessmonster | February 1, 2009 8:04 PM
I absolutely agree. It was like his post-election interview of Sarah Palin. What a bunch of hooey.
To Matt's credit, he did pick it up; but if you have the prez in front of you, ask the questions that matter - not "How's your family adjusting to living in the White House?"
Posted by: Tell the Truth | February 2, 2009 9:52 AM