-Cp
09-23-2008, 12:47 PM
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Obama
"Well I think there are a couple of core principles that have to be put into place."
Lauer
"Dealbreakers?"
Obama
"Dealbreakers. I.. I.. think you have to have some mechanism of oversight. You can't give one.."
Lauer
"But both sides agree on that."
Obama
"Both sides agree on that. But.. the.. the administration hasn't been entirely clear on whether they agree with it but, the bottom line is you can't give one person authority over 700-billion dollars without any oversight whatsoever.
So I think that's gonna be important. The second thing that's gonna be important is to uh make sure the criteria by uh which firms participate.. the way it's set up.
So taxpayers get the upside and not just the downside. We want to make sure taxpayers are benefiting. Third principle is.... this can't simply be a bailout for investors and CEO's and shareholders.
They've got to take a hit for the bad decisions that they've made."
Lauer
"But how much time do you have to vet this? The talk is this has to get done in the next week or two weeks.
If you're lucky enough to be elected President..
STOP THE TAPE... OBAMA TAKES A BIG SMILE WHEN LAUER SAYS "IF YOU'RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE ELECTED PRESIDENT."
OBAMA LIKE A LITTLE MANCHILD.. "HOLY CRAP.. I COULD BE PRESIDENT.. HEHE. HE'S SMILING WHILE LAUER'S TRYING TO ASK HIM SOME SERIOUS QUESTIONS HERE. WHILE WE'RE IN THE MIDST OF A FINANCIAL CRISIS THIS BOZO THINKS IT'S SO COOL HE'S COULD BE "PRESIDENT"
Lauer
"If you're lucky enough to be elected President, and it turns out this plan has flaws. They are not going to want to hear from you.. "we were rushed into this" They're going to say you voted yes pal. It's yours."
Obama
"Well uh.. ye.. this is why we've gotta think about this in two phases.
We've got a short term crisis that has to be dealt with in a bi-partison fashion. And then we have a long term structural set of problems we've got to deal with. "
Lauer
"You've laid out an ambitious plan. You want to improve healthcare, you want to improve education.. the infrastructure, investment in energy and.. oh boy
Here comes this 700-billion dollar bill that wasn't apart of your thinking when you laid out this plan. If I'm a voter and I want to decide whether I want to vote for you or Senator McCain..
Don't I have a right to know from you right now which of those things are gonna get hit by the budget axe before I vote for you?"
Obama
"Although we are potentially providing 700-billion dollars in available money to the treasury. We don't anticipate that all that money gets spent right away.
And we don't anticipate that all that money is lost. How we're gonna structure that in budget terms still has to be decided. Does that mean I can do everything I've called for in this campaign?
Right away probably not. We're gonna have to phase it in and a lot of it's gonna depend on what our tax revunues look like.
Lauer
"Part of this whole ecnomic picture was the AIG situation. On Tuesday night the Fed decided to bail them out.
Huge amount of money. That morning prior to the bailout John McCain said that the federal government should not bail out AIG.
You chastized him on the campaign trail. So the message to those voters.. John McCain didn't grasp the scope of the situation and the the fallout from the failure of AIG?"
Obama
"I think what's been clear this entire past ten days has been John McCain has not had clarity.. and and.. a grasp on the situation.
Lauer
"John McCain said that on our program.. to me. Three minutes later in an interview with Meredith Viera.
Joe Biden your running mate was asked the exact same question.
Should the federal government bailout AIG? And he said no. So it looks like...
Obama
"I think in that situation Joe should have waited as well."
Lauer
"But it's the kind of thing that drives people nuts about politics. It sounds like you were trying to score some political points against John McCain using his words.
When your own running mate used very similiar words.
Obama
"Well I think there are a couple of core principles that have to be put into place."
Lauer
"Dealbreakers?"
Obama
"Dealbreakers. I.. I.. think you have to have some mechanism of oversight. You can't give one.."
Lauer
"But both sides agree on that."
Obama
"Both sides agree on that. But.. the.. the administration hasn't been entirely clear on whether they agree with it but, the bottom line is you can't give one person authority over 700-billion dollars without any oversight whatsoever.
So I think that's gonna be important. The second thing that's gonna be important is to uh make sure the criteria by uh which firms participate.. the way it's set up.
So taxpayers get the upside and not just the downside. We want to make sure taxpayers are benefiting. Third principle is.... this can't simply be a bailout for investors and CEO's and shareholders.
They've got to take a hit for the bad decisions that they've made."
Lauer
"But how much time do you have to vet this? The talk is this has to get done in the next week or two weeks.
If you're lucky enough to be elected President..
STOP THE TAPE... OBAMA TAKES A BIG SMILE WHEN LAUER SAYS "IF YOU'RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO BE ELECTED PRESIDENT."
OBAMA LIKE A LITTLE MANCHILD.. "HOLY CRAP.. I COULD BE PRESIDENT.. HEHE. HE'S SMILING WHILE LAUER'S TRYING TO ASK HIM SOME SERIOUS QUESTIONS HERE. WHILE WE'RE IN THE MIDST OF A FINANCIAL CRISIS THIS BOZO THINKS IT'S SO COOL HE'S COULD BE "PRESIDENT"
Lauer
"If you're lucky enough to be elected President, and it turns out this plan has flaws. They are not going to want to hear from you.. "we were rushed into this" They're going to say you voted yes pal. It's yours."
Obama
"Well uh.. ye.. this is why we've gotta think about this in two phases.
We've got a short term crisis that has to be dealt with in a bi-partison fashion. And then we have a long term structural set of problems we've got to deal with. "
Lauer
"You've laid out an ambitious plan. You want to improve healthcare, you want to improve education.. the infrastructure, investment in energy and.. oh boy
Here comes this 700-billion dollar bill that wasn't apart of your thinking when you laid out this plan. If I'm a voter and I want to decide whether I want to vote for you or Senator McCain..
Don't I have a right to know from you right now which of those things are gonna get hit by the budget axe before I vote for you?"
Obama
"Although we are potentially providing 700-billion dollars in available money to the treasury. We don't anticipate that all that money gets spent right away.
And we don't anticipate that all that money is lost. How we're gonna structure that in budget terms still has to be decided. Does that mean I can do everything I've called for in this campaign?
Right away probably not. We're gonna have to phase it in and a lot of it's gonna depend on what our tax revunues look like.
Lauer
"Part of this whole ecnomic picture was the AIG situation. On Tuesday night the Fed decided to bail them out.
Huge amount of money. That morning prior to the bailout John McCain said that the federal government should not bail out AIG.
You chastized him on the campaign trail. So the message to those voters.. John McCain didn't grasp the scope of the situation and the the fallout from the failure of AIG?"
Obama
"I think what's been clear this entire past ten days has been John McCain has not had clarity.. and and.. a grasp on the situation.
Lauer
"John McCain said that on our program.. to me. Three minutes later in an interview with Meredith Viera.
Joe Biden your running mate was asked the exact same question.
Should the federal government bailout AIG? And he said no. So it looks like...
Obama
"I think in that situation Joe should have waited as well."
Lauer
"But it's the kind of thing that drives people nuts about politics. It sounds like you were trying to score some political points against John McCain using his words.
When your own running mate used very similiar words.