If King was Moses, is Obama the new Jesus?
Faces of fans show they were spiritually transported
Times photo captured Obama elevating on airport tarmac
Will President elect pull in rivals, establish heaven on earth? Or is he all too human, and naive?
Can we trust this man? Despite Obama’s 60 Minutes interview, 15 minute press conference and impressive (if somewhat too Clintonesque) selection of Cabinet officers this week, it appears that fearful skeptics are still concerned that President elect Barack may not be the finest thing to happen to American politics since Lincoln and Roosevelt combined (click the superb photo left by Times campaign photographer Damon Winter twice for evidence in Obama’s favor writ large - Rushmore here we come!).
This myopia seems extraordinary. Perhaps these cynics missed seeing for themselves the interview of the future First Couple on CBS last Sunday (Nov 16), when Michelle and Barack Obama wowed 24 million Americans.
The new White House duo gave such an excellent impression to all and sundry that we ended up confident that, ably supported by his wife, this lanky, large eared, ember eyed, mulatto Lincolnesque lawyer is not only a graceful orator, literate author, devoted husband and loving father, but is also, with his intellect, good humor, ever widening natural grasp of politics and government, financial imperviousness and inborn sense of public service and responsibility, a more convincing prophet than ever of progressive peace and prosperity and, once in power, is bound to be what his devoted fans envision him to be, a great, compassionate and determinedly constructive national and international leader who will advance the world toward the universal happiness it deserves.
In fact we hereby dare to predict that the man standing on top of the smoking political and economic wreckage of George W’s eight years will rebuild America at home and abroad so sanely, sensibly and successfully that the election in 2012 will return him to the White House with a record landslide of around 78-22%.
If such enthusiasm seems over the top to you, dear reader, it may be because you have yet to see the interview, now at CBS (link above) and on YouTube. What a novelty to hear and see a President-to-be speak with a lake-deep analytical intelligence behind his deeply thoughtful eyes! (Tone this down, please. - Ed.)
Those dark brown depths (click to enlarge twice) seemed to us, as we TiVo’d him repeatedly, to be windows into a soul uniquely capable of rising above the emotional confusion and tribal ideologies of messy democratic politics to see with crystal clarity what is needed for the national and global good.
A man both calm and passionate
If ever there was a man who will keep a cool head as all around are losing theirs, it is this well grounded visionary, Barack Hussein Obama, brought up on food stamps and now progressive Western democracy’s leader.
Obama via Kroft combines warm love for those close to him with an activist passion for the betterment of mankind as a whole. Yet what is unique is that he is also so cool - all this red blooded attention to others is allied with a unusually even intelligence and lawyerly analytical grasp. Obama’s ordered mind is clearly on a higher intellectual plane than George W’s linguistic and moral fumbling, but it is also a cut above the erstwhile keen pragmatic intuitiveness of one time Rhodes scholar Bill Clinton, we have to say (just compare their books). Surely this fluent ability to think straight and true must have been a positive factor in the election. If so, it speaks well for an electorate that ever since Adlai Stevenson has seemed suspicious of intellectual skills. (Please. - Ed.)
As we labored to state earlier, it is one of Obama’s triumphs is that he has rehabilitated informed intelligence as a political asset. That’s why the moment we savored most in the hour long 60 Minutes appearance was when the next President vouched for it himself, as in “I am not stupid!”:
Kroft: There’s been a lot of talk about [that] you talked about your mother-in-law. Is she moving in with you?
Mr. Obama: Well, I don’t tell my mother-in-law what to do. But I’m not stupid. That’s why I got elected president, man.
Why Obama will prove masterly as captain of the world
In general it seems obvious from his surefooted treatment of policy questions in the campaign and his confident selection of a team of rivals for his experienced and centrist cabinet that Obama is not only distinguished by a lawyerly desire to dig into a topic and master it himself by drawing upon all aspects before making policy, but his independent mind is harnessed to a community leader approach which takes in all viewpoints before proceeding to judgment. (Isn’t that the same thing? - Ed.)
Since we try for a similar evenhanded thoroughness of research and understanding before committing to a position, including drawing on all our rivals and crritics whom we so respect and admire, we applaud Obama’s highly developed tendency to think for himself after drawing on all sources, even to the extent of following Lincoln in including opponents in his Cabinet.
Some might think he has gone too far in accommodating the Clintons now that he has picked Hillary for State but he has surely brought into the fold someone who might otherwise be a J. Edgar Hoover to his LBJ (”Better to have him inside pissing out than outside pissing in”, as that President put it). Once again this is a President who will hear and grasp all sides of a case before judging it, even if part of his inclination is a canny policy of drawing possible opponents close, in the Chinese manner (”Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer. - Art of War, by general & military strategist Sun-tzu ~400 BC)
As a British expatriate we heartily applaud what has long been a successful policy of the English upper classes, which is to open the front door to revolutionaries and other hotheads who might disturb our peace of mind and property and marry them to our daughters as fast as possible.
Supreme poise allows far sighted clarity
Clearly Obama has unmatchable confidence, which allows two things: listening to others, and independence of mind. His ego is strong enough for him to feel that it is his destiny is to be President without it being too narrowly focused or self indulgent.
There is not a whiff of egomania in the whole Kroft interview, which suggests in so many ways that psychologically Obama has all the time in the world to pay attention to others. This is not someone who will dip into the affections of interns or pander to the roar of the crowd to gain self esteem, but someone who has and will have no trouble devoting himself entirely to his family and to his job now, which is to save us all.
Thus when asked by a clearly taken (some said fawning, but there were tough policy questions too) Steve Kroft whether he was having difficulty in believing his victory was finally won and realizing the full extent of his new position, Obama had to confess that he really just felt he was now in the role that he was born for.
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. That gives me a certain sense of calm. I will say that the challenges that we’re confronting are enormous. And they’re multiple. And so there are times during the course of a given a day where you think, ‘Where do I start?’
Destiny had spoken. Once again we encounter the strange and scientifically inexplicable principle that great men and women frequently say they know what they were destined for from childhood. We were not surprised to read in a recent and sadly slender issue of irreplaceable Time magazine that Obama had written in his Jakarta prep school days that he was going to be president. (Update: Obama himself denied this in talking to Barbara Walters Dec 4 Thu on her ABC special, where he was featured as the Most Interesting Person of the Year. “The one thing I didn’t think I was going to be was President of the United States” he told her.)
The easy approachability of Obama’s style when he is talking to the public is allied to his desire to engage and co-opt everybody in the cause of improving the lot of all, seems to us. Steve Kroft interviewed the couple side by side on what appeared to be cushioned dining chairs, and Obama spent the entire interview sitting on the edge of his seat toward Kroft with his legs wide apart. Experts in body language will probably agree that this stance is a symbolic gesture of receptivity, as disarming as a handshake combined with an elbow grip and a huge smile and kind words. We imagine it is probably a first for a President-elect to project such welcoming acceptance to an audience of millions.
Is there evidence of Obama’s divinity?
If you will allow us to say so here, the work of Science Guardian, as readers know, consists of comparing the otherwise unread literature of any scientific field with the claims of the scientists and officials who lead its politics.
This serious endeavor has resulted in some remarkable findings, for example, that the claims of the leading scientists (such as recent Nobel winner Luc “I found it first!” Montagnier and Robert “They found me not guilty of nothing! (sic)” Gallo, both pictured left) and officials in HIV/AIDS that there is a global pandemic caused by an infectious virus tendentiously labeled Human Immunodeficiency Virus or HIV are entirely hollow and without scientific foundation.
Not only is this belief completely unproven after twenty four years but in fact the claim was thoroughly debunked in 1986 in top journals with arguments that have never been refuted, while an annual harvest of research results have accumulated a pyramid of contradictions.
Unfortunately, politics have protected and fueled the false belief and it has grown like a huge tumor on the body of good science ever since, immune to the efforts all those who know better such as Peter Duesberg of Berkeley (pic) to enlighten the masses as to how they are being misled by the authorities they trust.
A similar result has been obtained in cancer where the profitable paradigm that has ruled for three decades without medical advantage. The oncogene theory that cancer arises from mutations in certain predictable genes is shown in the elite literature by the same Duesberg to be without viable logic or evidence, contrary to the public claims of its proponents who have nonetheless wrung several Nobel prizes from their work.
Naturally it has occurred to us to apply the same methodology in other arenas to see if we can come up with new findings overlooked by the overworked and uninformed non specialists who largely report and present the official news.
As a result in the Obama case the staff of Science Guardian, using the most up to date technology available in the office to review all our files of the events of the recent Presidential Election of 2008 recorded in text, still and video, has undertaken a mammoth research project which is not yet complete, but already piled high enough to yield a remarkable preliminary conclusion revealed here for the first time: Barack Obama may be the new Messiah.
One of our tools is simply to examine photos and video for an impression of the internal makeup of the man or woman featured. For example, Peter Duesberg of Berkeley is a consistent truth teller in public and private, in our experience, whereas Robert Gallo has been recognized in reviews of his work by government officials as being severely challenged in this regard. We believe that the difference is readily signaled by comparing the faces of the two celebrated scientists. Another Gallo photo is added here for your use in this regard. Perhaps you can see what we mean.
Is Barack the Second Coming? First hard evidence emerges
The visuals we have in hand of Obama are also telling, we find, and indicate that this man has at the minimum a list of divine attributes which have excited many of his followers to swooning recognition of his possibly suprahuman status.
We first realized this momentous truth when reviewing the TV tapes and saw signs of uninhibited ecstasy in the crowds that gathered on 125th St in Harlem, when the results came through signaling Obama’s victory at just past nine o’clock on Nov 4 (Tues). But what really brought home the point that transcendent religious joy was involved came later when we watched the faces in the crowd in Chicago’s Grant Park later as our newly minted Great Guru made his acceptance speech.
Mainly on the more openly expressive faces of women, but also visible on the features of men, we saw a truly astounding level of worshipful adoration and openhearted acceptance that exceeded the highest level of secular enthusiasm we have ever seen evoked by rock stars or other popular celebrities, even Oprah Winfrey, whose audiences often seem on the verge of kneeling before her as a goddess.
What we see incarnated in these expressions is nothing less than Transcendent Love, in fact, which of course is another name for God, as in “God is Love”. But judge for yourself. We present alongside these paragraphs some of the faces we captured from the tape.
Glory Glory Allelulia
Since everyone from Brad Pitt and Oprah Winfrey to Bill Maher and David Brooks, not to mention John McCain, seem to have caught Obamania since the election, we suspect that there is more to this visible surrender than the simple tendency of lively women to have a certain frisson of inner reaction to heroic figures that appear in public.
An office colleague has remarked that “He’s a handsome guy with power, so of course they all want him!” but this seems unduly worldly and simplistic. The crowd reaction to Obama obviously involved more than sexual hysterics of the kind evoked by Brad Pitt.
Obama without doubt has an added dimension on top of the normal stature of a famous politician, especially one so newly minted. The faces of the women in the pictures are all upturned, you will notice, as if in supplication. All are transported by an inner light, as if they perceived Obama as transcendent to earthly concerns.
What it all seems to add up to essentially is a matter of faith on the spiritual plane. Unlike the cynics, Obama’s fans readily place their trust in him as in a father, whether family or Heavenly.
Thus a good hearted Italian woman of bountiful assets we met recently writes to us from Rome:
I’m so happy about Obama! I organized an “American dinner†– hamburger and chips - with my friends in my new home for the election night/day for an energetic support to Obama. I have followed the news on the TV until 3 o’clock in the morning (Italian time), and then I was tired and I went to sleep, but I was sure about the victory of Obama. The entire world has a new chance. I like Obama, his intelligence, his culture, his firmness with him asking to Obama why he didn’t answer to the bad words of his adversaries in the same way, at the same bad level; he answered: these people could be the same people that I will govern, how can I do it if now I offend them? He is really wise, I can trust in him, in this kind of human being.
Our correspondent is used to gurus in her profession, we happen to know, so her testimony can be taken at face value.
So is Obama divine or not?
So is this level of esteem justified? Obama has great intelligence, calm, and a capacity for communal leadership which transcends his peers, it seems clear. But is he the new Christ - can he work miracles? Are these women right in their vibrant intuitions?
We would normally reserve judgment, as befits a professionally skeptical though not yet jaded reporter, but today we came upon scientific proof of Obama’s supernatural powers - an image by a reliable, non Photoshopping New York Times photographer that records Obama walking on air. The shot was taken on a drizzly evening at an airport on the tarmac as Obama embarked surrounded by his campaign disciples. As you can see, he is elevated above them by three or four feet.
Since careful study of this image allows no other interpretation we offer it for your inspection and conclude that Obama is indeed the Second Coming of Christ, or the equivalent.
We reproduce a copy here for your inspection (click the image twice to enlarge it mightily) but for the best quality please visit the New York Times page where their campaign photographers work is laid out in a gallery. Choose the one third from the left on the bottom row with the bold portrait of Obama. This is the slide show of Damon Winter, and the photo in question is second in his fine selection.
The caption reads: Sen. Obama prepares to board his campaign plane in Manchester after a rally in Londonderry, N.H. on October 16th.
As you can see, our new 21st Century prophet is elevated several feet above the wet tarmac. We can find no other way of interpreting this image! We therefore conclude that Senator and President-elect Barack Hussein Obama is the new Messiah, as so many of the men and women’s faces at his Grant Park sermon testify.
In the light of this conclusion, we now have an explanation for Obama’s sudden and otherwise hard to explain lightning fast ascendance from obscurity to the helm of the world in two years. We believe that this is twice as fast as Christ’s emergence as Savior of the World, which took four years, if we are not mistaken.
Of course, there is still a puzzle in that over 48% of the voters supported a personally charming, maverick, all too humanly erratic war hero, but reference to the Bible will indicate that rich men find it easier to pass through the eye of a needle that to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is clear that McCain is like almost all modern Republican leaders in that regard, ie either rich or determined to be rich as the chief priority in their lives, often regardless of the cost of exploiting the gullible or other underprivileged groups.
Aided by divinity, will Obama triumph?
But back to the point, can Obama handle the challenges to come? Armed with divine power, we don’t doubt it. That is why we advise readers not to worry even though we all face economic ruin and political destruction if he does not succeed in saving the US auto industry, and the rest of us, from the world economic nose dive, not to mention fencing off Al Quaeda and the Taliban from Pakistan’s nuclear stockpile, and somehow stopping Iran’s nuclear advance.
More reasons to think that Obama is divine?
But surely, some may complain, there should by now be other indications of his Christ-like status, if it is genuine, than the joyful ecstasy of young women, or the elevation of the candidate several feet above wet airport tarmac, even if taken by a New York Times photographer? (Some may also object that the elevatee does not look like a tall Obama, but given the caption, we conclude it must be, since no other silhouetted figure looks much like Obama either. )
We find there are many. In his 15 minute press conference a week ago, for example, there were at least two others. The first was Obama pausing to inquire kindly after a reporter’s health when he spotted her wearing a sling - “What happened to your arm Lynn?”.
This was a highly significant (to us) indication of Obama’s role on earth of providing emotional and spiritual succor to all members of the human race, even journalists, in their sufferings. What other President-elect embroiled in the tensions and turmoil of waiting for the previous occupant to leave office and in choosing his Cabinet from what seem to be tens if not hundreds of supplicants would spare time in a press conference squeezed into barely 15 minutes to ask after a young lady’s welfare? This is the kind of high order of compassion which can be expected only from That Ones with a streak of Divinity showing through.
The second was a memorable moment, which was in itself enough to win over several million undecided voters. We refer to the charming phrase with which Obama, discussing the choice of a dog that he has promised his children once they settle in the White House, referred to himself as a “mutt” as in “a mutt like me”.
We suspect that Obama himself must have realized that he may have given the game away with this disarmingly self-deprecating phrase, for it was very soon after that he abruptly ended the conference and swept out. Nothing of course could be more indicative of Christ-like stature than such extreme humility combined with guru-level leadership staus, which Obama, though still President-elect, has already achieved, with the press and the public breathlessly hanging on and deconstructing every word he speaks as the scripture of the New Nation.
This is the man that his rivals, even before he won the nomination and the election, were moved to acknowledge was superior. Hillary Clinton could not help herself from exclaiming that it was a privilege to be on the same debating platform, and John McCain told a crowd, “Don’t tell him I said this but he’s an impressive fellow in many ways”.
Our final piece of evidence that this is all a heavenly conspiracy comes on YouTube, where a fan posted a video on SuperBarack, clearly influenced by a feeling or intuition that we are now all in the presence of a visitation from somewhere above, even though it more cautiously ascribes to Obama only the powers of a Superman.
Here is the full text of the CBS interview (click the Tab after the excerpt):
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, inching up 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 as we’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 believe what 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 to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment, not just for individual families but the repercussions across the economy would be dire. So it’s my belief that we need to 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 is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all the stakeholders coming together with a plan what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like? So that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere. And that’s, I think, what you haven’t yet seen. That’s something that I think we’re gonna have to come up with.
(CBS) Since Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States 12 days ago, he has largely remained out of sight, getting high-level government briefings and conferring with his transition team. But he surfaced on Friday afternoon in Chicago, alongside his wife Michelle to give 60 Minutes his first post-election interview.
It covers a wide range of subjects including the economy, the ailing automobile industry, the government’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 a treat. Michelle always wakes up earlier than I do. So listen to her roaming around and having the 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. That gives me a certain sense of calm. I will say that the challenges that we’re confronting are enormous. And they’re multiple. And so there are times during the course of a given a day where 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 team in place because transition periods are potentially times of vulnerability to a terrorist attack. We wanna 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 issues like energy and healthcare. And how do we sequence those things in a way that we can actually get 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 difficult circumstances. We’ve got an unprecedented crisis, or at least something that we have not seen since the Great Depression. And I think Hank would be the first one to acknowledge that probably not everything that’s been done has worked the way he had hoped it would work. But I’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, we could have seen a lot more bank failures over the last several months. We could have seen an even more rapid deterioration of the economy, even a bigger drop in the stock market. So part of 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 the financial markets and in the consumer markets and among businesses that allow the economy to move forward in a strong way. And my job as president is gonna be to make sure that we restore that confidence.
2 (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 next couple of months. One area that I’m concerned about, and I’ve said this publicly, is we have not focused on foreclosures and what’s happening to homeowners as much as I would like. We have the tools to do it. We’ve gotta set up a negotiation between banks and borrowers so that people 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’s required to and we’re making suggestions in some circumstances about how we think they might 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, inching up 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 as we’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 believe what 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 to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment, not just for individual families but the repercussions across the economy would be dire. So it’s my belief that we need to 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 is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all the stakeholders coming together with a plan what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like? So that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere. And that’s, I think, what you haven’t yet 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 and General 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 sense that you’d go to a restructuring like the airlines had to do in some cases. And then they come out 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 not potentially permit GM to get back on its feet. And I think that what we have to do is to recognize that these are extraordinary circumstances. Banks aren’t lending as it is. They’re not even lending to businesses that are doing well, much less businesses that are doing poorly. And in that circumstance, the usual options may not be available.
3 (CBS) Kroft: When the price of oil was at $147 a barrel, there were a lot of spirited and profitable discussions that were held on energy independence. Now you’ve got the price of oil under $60.
Mr. Obama: Right.
Kroft: Does doing something about energy is it less important now than…
Kroft: Why?
Mr. Obama: Well, because this has been our pattern. We go from shock to trance. You know, oil prices go up, gas prices at the pump go up, everybody goes into a flurry of activity. And then the prices go back down and suddenly we act like it's not important, and we start, you know filling up our SUVs again.
And, as a consequence, we never make any progress. It’s part of the addiction, all right. That has to be broken. Now is the time to break it.
Kroft: Where is all the money going to come from to do all of these things? And is there a point where just going to the Treasury Department and printing more of it ceases to be an option?
Mr. Obama: Well, look, I think what's interesting about the time that we're in right now is that you actually have a consensus among conservative Republican-leaning economists and liberal left-leaning economists. And the consensus is this: that we have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving again, that we're gonna have to spend money now to stimulate the economy.
And that we shouldn't worry about the deficit next year or even the year after. That short term, the most important thing is that we avoid a deepening recession.
Kroft: How high a priority are you placing on re-regulation of the financial markets?
Mr. Obama: I think it's a top priority. I think that we have to restore a sense of trust, transparency, openness in our financial system. 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.
But, hopefully, everybody's learned their lesson. And the answer is not heavy-handed regulations that crush the entrepreneurial spirit and risk taking of American capitalism. That's what's made our economy great. But it is to restore a sense of balance.
His first legislative goal will be to get Congress to pass an economic stimulus package that he hopes will create jobs and put money in the pockets of ordinary citizens, construction programs to shore up the nation’s creaky infrastructure, a tax cut for the middle class and his first initiatives on health care. But some things he can do with the stroke of a pen.
Kroft: There are a number of different things that you could do early pertaining to executive orders. One of them is to shutdown Guantanamo Bay. Another is to change interrogation methods that are used by U.S. troops. Are those things that you plan to take early action on?
Mr. Obama: Yes. I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn’t torture. And I’m gonna make sure that we don’t torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.
4 (CBS) Kroft: Can you give us some sense of when you might start redeployments out of Iraq?
Mr. Obama: Well, I’ve said during the campaign, and I’ve stuck to this commitment, that as soon as I take office, I will call in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, my national security apparatus, and we will start executing a plan that draws down our troops. Particularly in light of the problems that we’re having in Afghanistan, which has continued to worsen. We’ve got to shore up those efforts.
Kroft: Where does capturing or killing Osama bin Laden fall?
Mr. Obama: I think it is a top priority for us to stamp out al Qaeda once and for all. And I think capturing or killing bin Laden is a critical aspect of stamping out al Qaeda. He is not just a symbol, he’s also the operational leader of an organization that is planning attacks against US targets.
Kroft: How close are you to settling on a cabinet?
Mr. Obama: Well, I think that I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I’d like to see. But it takes some time to work those things through.
Kroft: When are you gonna make your first announcement?
Mr. Obama: Soon.
Kroft: Next week?
Mr. Obama: Soon.
Kroft: You met with Senator Clinton this week.
Mr. Obama: I did.
Kroft: Is she on the short list for a cabinet position?
Mr. Obama: You know, she is somebody who I needed advice and counsel from. She is one of the most thoughtful public officials that we have. Beyond that, you’re not getting anything out of me Steve.
Kroft: Will there be Republicans in the cabinet?
Mr. Obama: Yes.
Kroft: More than one?
Mr. Obama: You’re not getting more out of me.
Kroft: You’ve spoken to some former presidents.
Mr. Obama: I have.
Kroft: Any advice, any good advice they gave you?
Mr. Obama: You know, they were all incredibly gracious. But I think that all of them recognized that there’s a certain loneliness to the job. That, you know, you’ll get advice, and you’ll get counsel. Ultimately, you’re the person who’s gonna be making decisions.
And I think that even now, you know, I - you can already feel that fact.
Kroft: What are you reading right now? I mean, have…
Mr. Obama: A lot of briefing papers.
Kroft: A lot of briefing papers?
Mr. Obama: Yeah. I’ve been spending a lot of time reading Lincoln. There is a wisdom there and a humility about his approach to government, even before he was president, that I just find very helpful.
Kroft: Put a lot of his political enemies in his cabinet.
Mr. Obama: He did.
Kroft: Is that something you’re considering?
Mr. Obama: Well, I tell you what, I find him a very wise man.
5 (CBS) Kroft: Have you been reading anything about the Depression? Anything about FDR?
Mr. Obama: You know, I have actually. There’s a new book out about FDR’s first 100 days and what you see in FDR that I hope my team can– emulate, is not always getting it right, but projecting a sense of confidence, and a wil
In a preemptive rescue operation of sense in the face of the global tsunami of HIV/AIDS promotional misinformation that is expected to sweep through media this week from Monday, which is World AIDS Day, guests on this Robert Scott Bell Show will include author Christine Maggiore, celebrated scientist and author Peter Duesberg, author Celia Farber, Clark Baker (the Gallo’s Egg private investigator), leading web site author David Crowe, author and scientist David Rasnick, and author and science critic Henry Bauer (The Origin, Persistence and Failings of HIV/AIDS Theory). The theme is the real cause of “AIDS” immune deficiency and valid treatments.
