A Conversation With Barack Obama : Rolling Stone

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What do you think went wrong with the Bush administration? How did things get so bad in these last eight years? What happened to us?
It's hard to know where to start.

I think it starts with a president and a team that came in with a very ideological vision about what they wanted to accomplish. They said, "We are going to push through trillion-dollar tax cuts come hell or high water," without thinking through, "What does the country need right now? Are we falling behind in our investment in education? Are we failing to deal with our infrastructure? In the context of globalization, are we preparing citizens so they can access the global economy and succeed? Are we doing something to lessen growing inequality?" Those weren't questions they were asking. They just had this idea, "We're going to cut taxes massively, especially for our friends."

Then, because of a lack of curiosity about the world outside our borders, when 9/11 hit, the response again was ideological. There was an appropriate and pragmatic response when it came to going after the Taliban and Al Qaeda. But almost immediately, there was this sense of "Let's broaden our goal here to impose our will on the world as the lone superpower." And we have an administration that doesn't listen and doesn't have a negative feedback loop that helps make midcourse corrections. As a consequence, we've got some big problems, both home and abroad.

Is there a marker you would lay down at the end of your first term where you say, "If this has happened or not happened, I would consider it a negative mark on my governance"?
If I haven't gotten combat troops out of Iraq, passed universal health care and created a new energy policy that speaks to our dependence on foreign oil and deals seriously with global warming, then we've missed the boat. Those are three big jobs, so it's going to require a lot of attention and imagination, and it's going to require the American people feeling inspired enough that they're prepared to take on these big challenges.

There is little doubt that you are going to be "Swift boated" in some way during the campaign and that we are all once again going to be hit with the politics of fear. How do you deal with that? In the past, Democrats have cowered in front of that.
Yeah, I don't do cowering. You have to respond forcefully, quickly and truthfully to attacks. So far, we've held up pretty well.

Do you think the American people have learned their lesson when it comes to that kind of attack?
One thing they know is we can't afford to be distracted right now. Look at the headlines in USA Today: In addition to floods, you've got "Gas Could Peak at $4.15" and "Credit Crisis Shortchanges Some Student-Loan Breaks." People are having trouble making ends meet.

My point is that if I'm honest and straightforward and they trust me, these old tactics won't work.

Good luck. We are following you daily with great hope and admiration.
We're going to get this done.[From RS 1056-1057 — July 10, 2008]

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