A Conversation With Barack Obama

All the young people who are backing you and who have placed such hope in you and your promise for change — what will change for them?
The sense that they can help shape the direction of this country. I always knew — partly because as somebody who has been a community organizer, I've helped mentor a lot of young people and talked to groups involved in public service — I always knew there was this real hunger to get engaged and involved on the part of young people, but they didn't see politics as an avenue to do it. What this campaign has done is said, "Even as you're organizing about Darfur, even as you're involved in that environmental group, even as you're joining Teach for America, there is a need for you to be part of this central conversation about our politics and our government." And they've responded.

How are you going to connect your support among young people to the governing process?
This is where the Internet is so powerful. One of the things that surprised me in this campaign is how well we were able to use technology to organize people. There's enormous promise — but we've just scratched the surface of what's possible when it comes to making government work for people. Virtual town-hall meetings, increasing transparency, accountability on legislation. You think about all the inefficiencies in government. We basically have a New Deal government in a 21st-century economy. We've got to upgrade it.

So you're consciously aware that this will have to be part of how you govern?
Yes, absolutely. The Internet gives young people a tool to be informed continuously. It gives them an opportunity to speak to each other and mobilize themselves. It gives them the opportunity to hold me accountable when I'm not following through on promises that I've made. It gives me a powerful ally if Congress is resistant to measures that need to be taken.

If you are president, what do you think will make the traditional Washington establishment most nervous about how you approach policy and government?
The relationship between lobbyists and legislation and the revolving door that's been created between people in government and K Street is not something you can eliminate, but it's something you can curb. People are going to be nervous about the fact that I'm interested in curbing it. Lobbyists have a function to play; they have a representing interest as part of our democracy. But the degree to which, during the Republican Congress, you literally had oil companies writing energy legislation or drug companies writing drug legislation, without regard for the public interest — that's got to change. And that will make some people uncomfortable, partly because it's very lucrative, and it's grown massively over the last decade. I don't think people understand . . .

The way legislation has been outsourced to private interests?
Yeah. I don't think people understand how much the lobbying industry has grown, and how much money is involved in it. A lot of people are getting paid handsomely.

Would you say it's overtaken the elected representatives themselves, in terms of their power to write legislation?
I don't think it's overtaken the legislature, but I think that it has become an unhealthy symbiotic relationship.

Last week, the Senate failed to pass a measure that would have strongly addressed global warming. What's your plan to get meaningful climate-change legislation passed in the face of opposition by the oil, coal and auto industries and their allies in Congress?
Let's start with what we have to do. Every scientist that is serious about looking at this question will tell you that, at minimum, we've got to reduce carbon emissions by about 80 percent.

By what date?
2050. And it's not going to happen precipitously. We've got to start now and steadily ratchet down our carbon emissions.