Obama: 'Surprised, enchanted, humbled?'

by Mark Silva

Surprised, troubled, enchanted and humbled?

They weren't President Barack Obama's own words, but rather the questions of our friend and colleague, Jeff Zeleny of The New York Times, who adroitly asked the president tonight in his prime-time news conference what has surprised, troubled, enchanted and humbled him about the presidency.

Obama stopped to write each word down before responding.

Surprised?

By the breadth of the challenges facing his administration. "The typical president has two or three big problems. We've got seven or eight big problems.''

Troubled?

More "sobered,'' Obama said, "by the fact that change in Washington comes slowly.''

Enchanted? And the East Room rippled with laughter.

"When I meet our servicemen and women, enchanted is probably not the word I'd use. But I am so profoundly and impressed and grateful.''

Humbled?

"Humbled by the fact that the presidency is extraordinarily powerful, but we are just part of a broader tapestry of American life... There are a lot of different power centers.''

There are the business leaders. There is the Congress. He cannot simply "press a button" and make everything work.

Surprised, troubled (sobered, really), enchanted and humbled -- 100 days in, the president suggested, he is all of these things. See the full answer here:

(Photo by Charles Dharapak / AP)

"Surprised. I am surprised, compared to where I started, when we first announced for this race, by the number of critical issues that appear to be coming to a head all at the same time. You know, when I first started this race, Iraq was a central issue. But the economy appeared on the surface to still be relatively strong.

"There were underlying problems that I was seeing with health care for families and our education system and college affordability and so forth, but obviously, I didn't anticipate the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
"And so, you know, the typical president, I think, has two or three big problems; we've got seven or eight big problems. And so we've had to move very quickly. And I'm very proud of my team for the fact that we've been able to keep our commitments to the American people to bring about change, while at the same time managing a whole
host of issues that had come up that weren't necessarily envisioned a year and a half ago.

"Troubled? I'd say less troubled but, you know, sobered by the fact that change in Washington comes slow. That there is still a certain quotient of political posturing and bickering that takes place even when we're in the middle of really big crises.

"I would like to think that everybody would say, you know what, let's
take a timeout on some of the political games, focus our attention for
at least this year, and then we can start running for something next
year. And that hasn't happened as much as I would have liked.

"Enchanted? (Laughter.) Enchanted. I -- I will -- I will tell you that, when I -- when I meet our servicemen and -women, enchanted's probably not the word I would use. (Laughter.)

"But -- but -- but I -- but I am -- I am so profoundly impressed and grateful to them for what they do. They're really good at their job. They are willing to make extraordinary sacrifices on our behalf. They do so without complaint. They are fiercely loyal to this country.
"And, you know, the more I interact with our -- our servicemen and - women, from the top brass down to the lowliest private, I -- I'm just-- I'm grateful to them.
"Humbled... humbled by the fact that the presidency is extraordinarily powerful, but we are just part of a much broader tapestry of American life and there are a lot of different power centers. And so I can't just press a button and suddenly have the
bankers do exactly what I want -- (laughter) -- or -- (chuckles) -- or, you know, turn on a switch and suddenly, you know, Congress falls n line. And so, you know, what you do is to make your best arguments, listen hard to what other people have to say and coax folks in the right direction.
"This metaphor has been used before, but this -- the ship of state is an ocean liner; it's not a speed boat. And so the way we are constantly thinking about this issue of how to bring about the changes that the American people need is to -- is to say, if we can move this big battleship a few degrees in a different direction, we may not see all the consequences of that change a week from now or three months from now, but 10 years from now, or 20 years from now, our kids will be able to look back and say that was when we started getting serious about clean energy, that's when health care started to become more efficient and affordable, that's when we became serious about raising
our standards in education.''