Excerpts From The Interview

updated 48 minutes ago

Obama discusses Daschle, the economy

(CNN) -- President Obama joined CNN's Anderson Cooper on Tuesday to discuss the withdrawal of Tom Daschle as health and human services secretary-designate and the state of the U.S. economy. The following are excerpts from the interview.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much for sitting down with us today. Explain what happened today, Tom Daschle, you've let one of the most important domestic issues, which is health care, get caught up in what looks to many Americans like politics as usual.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think what happened was that Tom made an assessment that having made a mistake on his taxes that he took responsibility for, and indicated was a mistake, made the assessment that he was going to be too much of a distraction in trying to lead what is going to be a very heavy lift, trying to deliver health care. And ...

COOPER: Do you feel you messed up in letting it get this far?

OBAMA: Yes. I think I made a mistake. And I told Tom that. I take responsibility for the appointees and ... Watch Obama talk about his "mistake" »



COOPER: What was your mistake, letting it get this far? You should have pulled it earlier?

OBAMA: Well, I think my mistake is not in selecting Tom originally, because I think nobody was better equipped to deal both with the substance and policy of health care. He understands it as well as anybody, but also the politics, which is going to be required to actually get it done. But I think that, look, ultimately, I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics. And I don't want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards: one for powerful people and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes.

COOPER: Let's talk about the economy, the stimulus. Every day, you get an economic briefing, along with an intelligence briefing. Which to you is more sobering? The economic news you get or the national intelligence?

OBAMA: Well, look, the national security briefing is always sobering because my most important job is obviously keeping the American people safe. And we have to remain vigilant; the threats are still out there. But I will tell you in terms of what is alarming right now is how fast the economy has been deteriorating. I think even two or three months ago, most economists would not have predicted us being in as bad of a situation as we are in right now. And ...

COOPER: It keeps a lot of Americans right now up at night, does it keep you up at night?

OBAMA: Absolutely. It keeps me up at night, and it gets me up ...

COOPER: Literally?

OBAMA: Literally, because we've got a range of different problems, and there is no silver bullet. We're just going to have to work our way through the problem. So No. 1, we've got have a recovery package that puts people back to work and ensures that states that are dealing with rising unemployment can deal with unemployment insurance, can provide health care for people who have lost their jobs. So that's one set of problems. Then you've got a banking system that has undergone close to a meltdown. And we've got to figure out how do we intelligently get credit flowing again so that small businesses and large businesses can hire people and keep their doors open and sell their products.

COOPER: On executive compensation, Paul Krugman suggested in The (New York) Times on Sunday that your tough talk may be just for show. What can you really do?

OBAMA: Well, I think, you know, we'll talk about it tomorrow, but we're going to be laying down some very clear conditions in terms of where ...

COOPER: Do you support Claire McCaskill's idea of capping ...

OBAMA: Well, I -- again, I don't want to completely preempt my announcement tomorrow.

COOPER: You could here.

OBAMA: But I think there are ways -- there are mechanisms in place to make sure that institutions that are taking taxpayer money are not using that money for excessive executive compensation. And I think that when you see the announcement that we make, people will say, 'This is a reasonable approach.' It's not a government takeover. Private enterprise will still be taking place. But people will be accountable and responsible. And that's what we have to restore in the financial system generally.