President Barack Obama didn’t disavow his big-money fundraising machine, but did voice dismay about the presence of super PACs and negative campaigning in an interview that aired Monday morning.
“One of the worries we have obviously in the next campaign is that there are so many of these so-called super PACs, these independent expenditures that are gonna be out there, there is gonna be just a lot of money floating around and I guarantee a bunch of it’s gonna be negative,” Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer in an interview taped before the Super Bowl on Sunday.
“It’s not gonna be enough to say, ‘the other guy is a bum.’ You’ve got to explain to the people what your plan is to make sure that there are good jobs at good wages and that this economy is growing over the long term. And whoever wins that argument I think is gonna be the next president.”
Obama supporters, led by former White House aides, have formed a super PAC, Priorities USA. The president has publicly denounced the Supreme Court ruling, Citizens United, that allowed super PACs to form and so far, Republican groups have dwarfed Priorities USA’s fundraising. In all of 2011, it raised $4.1 million, while just a single donor – casino owner Sheldon Adelson – has alone poured $10 million into a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich.
In a portion of the interview conducted live during NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show, Obama weighed in on growing tensions between Iran and Israel, telling Lauer that the United States and Israel are working in “lockstep” to block Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Obama’s hope, he said, is to solve the issue through diplomacy.
Obama added in taped remarks aired Monday that the United States has a “very good estimate” of how long it will take for Iran to complete construction of a nuclear weapon. While the United States doesn’t fully know the “dynamics” inside Iran because they are constantly changing, Obama stressed that American forces are poised to act.
“We have done extensive planning over the last several years about all of our various options in the Gulf” and “are prepared to exercise these options should the need arise. But my goal is to resolve this diplomatically,” he repeated.
Obama also discussed his record during his more than three years in office.
He ran on a message of hope and change that compelled Americans to vote him into the White House nearly four years ago, but now some are disappointed that he hasn’t done all he promised. To Obama, “this is the nature of being president,” he said. “What’s frustrated people is that I haven’t been able to force Congress to implement every aspect of what I said in 2008. Well, it turns out our founders designed a system that makes it more difficult to bring about change than i would like sometimes. But what we have been able to do is move in the right direction. What I’m just going to keep on doing is plodding away, very persistent.”
“And you know what? One of the things about being president is you get better as time goes on,” he said, rolling out a new line he’s likely to repeat as he tries to persuade Americans to give him a second term.
President Barack Obama didn’t disavow his big-money fundraising machine, but did voice dismay about the presence of super PACs and negative campaigning in an interview that aired Monday morning.
“One of the worries we have obviously in the next campaign is that there are so many of these so-called super PACs, these independent expenditures that are gonna be out there, there is gonna be just a lot of money floating around and I guarantee a bunch of it’s gonna be negative,” Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer in an interview taped before the Super Bowl on Sunday.
“It’s not gonna be enough to say, ‘the other guy is a bum.’ You’ve got to explain to the people what your plan is to make sure that there are good jobs at good wages and that this economy is growing over the long term. And whoever wins that argument I think is gonna be the next president.”
Obama supporters, led by former White House aides, have formed a super PAC, Priorities USA. The president has publicly denounced the Supreme Court ruling, Citizens United, that allowed super PACs to form and so far, Republican groups have dwarfed Priorities USA’s fundraising. In all of 2011, it raised $4.1 million, while just a single donor – casino owner Sheldon Adelson – has alone poured $10 million into a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich.
In a portion of the interview conducted live during NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show, Obama weighed in on growing tensions between Iran and Israel, telling Lauer that the United States and Israel are working in “lockstep” to block Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Obama’s hope, he said, is to solve the issue through diplomacy.
Obama added in taped remarks aired Monday that the United States has a “very good estimate” of how long it will take for Iran to complete construction of a nuclear weapon. While the United States doesn’t fully know the “dynamics” inside Iran because they are constantly changing, Obama stressed that American forces are poised to act.
“We have done extensive planning over the last several years about all of our various options in the Gulf” and “are prepared to exercise these options should the need arise. But my goal is to resolve this diplomatically,” he repeated.
Obama also discussed his record during his more than three years in office.
He ran on a message of hope and change that compelled Americans to vote him into the White House nearly four years ago, but now some are disappointed that he hasn’t done all he promised. To Obama, “this is the nature of being president,” he said. “What’s frustrated people is that I haven’t been able to force Congress to implement every aspect of what I said in 2008. Well, it turns out our founders designed a system that makes it more difficult to bring about change than i would like sometimes. But what we have been able to do is move in the right direction. What I’m just going to keep on doing is plodding away, very persistent.”
“And you know what? One of the things about being president is you get better as time goes on,” he said, rolling out a new line he’s likely to repeat as he tries to persuade Americans to give him a second term.
President Barack Obama didn’t disavow his big-money fundraising machine, but did voice dismay about the presence of super PACs and negative campaigning in an interview that aired Monday morning.
“One of the worries we have obviously in the next campaign is that there are so many of these so-called super PACs, these independent expenditures that are gonna be out there, there is gonna be just a lot of money floating around and I guarantee a bunch of it’s gonna be negative,” Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer in an interview taped before the Super Bowl on Sunday.
“It’s not gonna be enough to say, ‘the other guy is a bum.’ You’ve got to explain to the people what your plan is to make sure that there are good jobs at good wages and that this economy is growing over the long term. And whoever wins that argument I think is gonna be the next president.”
Obama supporters, led by former White House aides, have formed a super PAC, Priorities USA. The president has publicly denounced the Supreme Court ruling, Citizens United, that allowed super PACs to form and so far, Republican groups have dwarfed Priorities USA’s fundraising. In all of 2011, it raised $4.1 million, while just a single donor – casino owner Sheldon Adelson – has alone poured $10 million into a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich.
In a portion of the interview conducted live during NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show, Obama weighed in on growing tensions between Iran and Israel, telling Lauer that the United States and Israel are working in “lockstep” to block Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Obama’s hope, he said, is to solve the issue through diplomacy.
Obama added in taped remarks aired Monday that the United States has a “very good estimate” of how long it will take for Iran to complete construction of a nuclear weapon. While the United States doesn’t fully know the “dynamics” inside Iran because they are constantly changing, Obama stressed that American forces are poised to act.
“We have done extensive planning over the last several years about all of our various options in the Gulf” and “are prepared to exercise these options should the need arise. But my goal is to resolve this diplomatically,” he repeated.
Obama also discussed his record during his more than three years in office.
He ran on a message of hope and change that compelled Americans to vote him into the White House nearly four years ago, but now some are disappointed that he hasn’t done all he promised. To Obama, “this is the nature of being president,” he said. “What’s frustrated people is that I haven’t been able to force Congress to implement every aspect of what I said in 2008. Well, it turns out our founders designed a system that makes it more difficult to bring about change than i would like sometimes. But what we have been able to do is move in the right direction. What I’m just going to keep on doing is plodding away, very persistent.”
“And you know what? One of the things about being president is you get better as time goes on,” he said, rolling out a new line he’s likely to repeat as he tries to persuade Americans to give him a second term.
President Barack Obama didn’t disavow his big-money fundraising machine, but did voice dismay about the presence of super PACs and negative campaigning in an interview that aired Monday morning.
“One of the worries we have obviously in the next campaign is that there are so many of these so-called super PACs, these independent expenditures that are gonna be out there, there is gonna be just a lot of money floating around and I guarantee a bunch of it’s gonna be negative,” Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer in an interview taped before the Super Bowl on Sunday.
“It’s not gonna be enough to say, ‘the other guy is a bum.’ You’ve got to explain to the people what your plan is to make sure that there are good jobs at good wages and that this economy is growing over the long term. And whoever wins that argument I think is gonna be the next president.”
Obama supporters, led by former White House aides, have formed a super PAC, Priorities USA. The president has publicly denounced the Supreme Court ruling, Citizens United, that allowed super PACs to form and so far, Republican groups have dwarfed Priorities USA’s fundraising. In all of 2011, it raised $4.1 million, while just a single donor – casino owner Sheldon Adelson – has alone poured $10 million into a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich.
In a portion of the interview conducted live during NBC’s Super Bowl pregame show, Obama weighed in on growing tensions between Iran and Israel, telling Lauer that the United States and Israel are working in “lockstep” to block Iran from becoming a nuclear power. Obama’s hope, he said, is to solve the issue through diplomacy.
Obama added in taped remarks aired Monday that the United States has a “very good estimate” of how long it will take for Iran to complete construction of a nuclear weapon. While the United States doesn’t fully know the “dynamics” inside Iran because they are constantly changing, Obama stressed that American forces are poised to act.
“We have done extensive planning over the last several years about all of our various options in the Gulf” and “are prepared to exercise these options should the need arise. But my goal is to resolve this diplomatically,” he repeated.
Obama also discussed his record during his more than three years in office.
He ran on a message of hope and change that compelled Americans to vote him into the White House nearly four years ago, but now some are disappointed that he hasn’t done all he promised. To Obama, “this is the nature of being president,” he said. “What’s frustrated people is that I haven’t been able to force Congress to implement every aspect of what I said in 2008. Well, it turns out our founders designed a system that makes it more difficult to bring about change than i would like sometimes. But what we have been able to do is move in the right direction. What I’m just going to keep on doing is plodding away, very persistent.”
“And you know what? One of the things about being president is you get better as time goes on,” he said, rolling out a new line he’s likely to repeat as he tries to persuade Americans to give him a second term.
