補習-Bipartisan Super Bowl Party

As the Steelers and Cardinals faced off in Tampa, congressmen and senators from the teams home states crossed party lines – and team loyalties – to join President Obama at the White House. Senators Arlen Specter (R-Pa) and Bob Casey (D-Pa) attended the Super Bowl Party, along with representatives Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.), Trent Franks (R-Az.), and Raul Grijalva (D-Az.). Other attendees included Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn), Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Artur Davis (D-Ala.), Rosa DeLauro (D-Ct.), Paul Hodes (D-NH), and Fred Upton (R-Mi.), and Delegate Eleanor Holmes-Norton, (D-DC). Before the game, the President sat down with NBCs Matt Lauer to talk about everything from the economy and Iraq to family life in the White House. We pulled a few highlights – the full transcript is below. On whether a substantial number of troops serving in Iraq will be home for the next Super Bowl: I think that we have a sense, now that the Iraqis just had a very significant election, with no significant violence there, that we are in a position to start putting more responsibility on the Iraqis, and thats good news for not only the troops in the field, but their families who are carrying an enormous burden. On bipartisan support for the stimulus package: You know, weve had a dysfunctional political system for a while now, and the fact that we have been able to move what is by all accounts a historic piece of legislation through this quickly and that the Senate is having a serious debate about it and we still expect it to be on my desk for signature before Presidents Day is quite an achievement. But its going to take time for people to start getting used to the fact that we dont have to score political points on every issue. Once in a while, we can take the politics out of it and just focus on getting the job done for the American people. On limiting executive compensation: Were going to have to make sure that its part of the package that we put forward in terms of how we spend money in the future. Nothing is worse than finding out after the fact -- when its too late that money has been wasted. Were going to make sure that on the front end, this stuff has been evaluated. On closing Guantanamo Bay: Its the right thing to do. Ultimately it will make us safer. Youve already seen in the reaction around the world a different sense of America by us taking this action. Now, is it going to be easy? No. But I have absolute confidence that ultimately were going to be able to find a mechanism. If we dont uphold our Constitution and our values, over time that will make us less safe and that will be a recruitment tool for organizations like al Qaeda. On the First Familys adjustment to life in the White House: People think Im cool -- nobody is cooler than my two girls. They just seem to take whatever comes with, you know, happiness and steadiness.The best deal of this whole thing, is it turns out Ive got this nice home office. And at the end of the day I can come home....Im seeing them now more than any time in the last two years, and thats been great for the whole family. On realizing the weight of the office: There have been a couple of times -- some wonderful, some sobering. Whenever you take that walk down the Colonnade and you go to the Oval Office, I do think you get this sense of the history that youre now a part of. Some sobering moments -- having to sign letters for troops who have died and sending letters to their families -- where you realize every decision you make counts. And you dont have time to -- you dont have time to spend a lot of time on inconsequential stuff. On the security features for his Blackberry: The works. The works. It turns into a car if I have to make a quick getaway. INTERVIEW OF THE PRESIDENT BY MATT LAUER, NBC Map Room, The White House February 1, 2009 Q Were here in the Map Room at the White House, with the 44th President of the United States. President Obama, its great to be with you. How you doing? THE PRESIDENT: Im doing great, Matt, thank you. Q So youve been President 12 days. So let me ask the question thats on everyones mind right now: Hows it going living with your mother-in-law? (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT: Fortunately, I love my mother-in-law and -- Q Im just asking, Im not trying to start trouble. THE PRESIDENT: She is actually -- she defends me whenever I screw up. So Michelle, you know, shes about to come down hard, my mother-in-law comes in, intercedes so -- Q Everythings copacetic. THE PRESIDENT: The longer she stays, the better off Im going to be. Q I was driving over here, Mr. President, I was thinking about this enormous transition that youve been through -- taking on the reins as Commander-in-Chief, Mrs. Obama becoming the First Lady. But youve got a daughter, ten, and a daughter, seven, and this is a huge game-changer for them, as well. How are they doing? THE PRESIDENT: You know, they -- I said this, I think, in an earlier interview -- people think Im cool -- nobody is cooler than my two girls. They just seem to take whatever comes with, you know, happiness and steadiness. And theyre loving school, theyre making friends -- in fact, theyve got some friends from school over today -- and theyve already joined some clubs. And Sasha, you know, I think maybe to endear myself to her, she decided she wanted to join a basketball team, so what more could I want? Q Are you getting to take part in some of the routines? I was thinking, youve been on the road basically for two years -- although you got home a lot. Now youre all under the same room, basically, for 12 days. Are you there for breakfast, do you get to read them a story at night, tuck them in bed? Hows it going? THE PRESIDENT: Its the best deal of this whole thing, is it turns out Ive got this nice home office. And at the end of the day I can come home -- even if Ive got more work to do -- I can have dinner with them, I can help them with their homework, I can tuck them in. If Ive got to go back to the office, I can. But Im seeing them now more than any time in the last two years, and thats been great for the whole family. Q President Bush said in his last press conference here at the White House, he said he wasnt sure when it would happen for you, but there would be a moment -- perhaps in the Oval Office -- when you would stop and realize, I am the President of the United States. Im curious, have you had that moment? THE PRESIDENT: There have been a couple of times -- some wonderful, some sobering. Whenever you take that walk down the Colonnade and you go to the Oval Office, I do think you get this sense of the history that youre now a part of. Some sobering moments -- having to sign letters for troops who have died and sending letters to their families -- where you realize every decision you make counts. And you dont have time to -- you dont have time to spend a lot of time on inconsequential stuff. Youve got to focus on, at this point, putting people back to work, but also reminding yourselves that youve got hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are putting themselves in harms way and youre the Commander-in-Chief. Q You talk about sobering moments -- even as a senator and member of the Foreign Relations Committee you were getting intelligence briefings, on the campaign trail also, and during the transition. But now, from what I understand, every day you go down there and theres that intelligence briefing on your desk, and its got to contain some pretty sobering stuff. There are millions, tens of millions of people watching this broadcast right now, Mr. President. If they were to have access to the same information you have now on a daily basis, how much less sleep would we all be getting? THE PRESIDENT: Heres what I think is important for everybody to understand: Weve got real threats and we have to remain vigilant, but the quality of our armed forces has never been better. When you meet the people who are charged with keeping America safe, it gives you enormous confidence; they are on the case day in, day out, with extraordinary professionalism. But there is no doubt that we have to make sure that we dont let up, because there are people who would be willing to do us harm. Q Lets talk about some of those men and women who are serving this country overseas in Afghanistan, other locations, in Iraq -- and Im sure theyre watching today, its a big event for the armed services. And a lot of those people have a vested interest in one of your campaign promises to end this war and get them home as soon -- within 16 months or so -- as humanly possible. So when you look at them, can you say that a substantial number of them will be home in time for next Super Bowl Sunday? Q Yes. I mean, were going to roll out in a very formal fashion what our intentions are in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan. But in conversations that Ive had with the Joint Chiefs, with people -- the commanders on the ground, I think that we have a sense, now that the Iraqis just had a very significant election, with no significant violence there, that we are in a position to start putting more responsibility on the Iraqis, and thats good news for not only the troops in the field, but their families who are carrying an enormous burden. Q The economy, I mean, people are going to watch this game today, theyre going to blow off some steam, theyre going to have a good time. But a lot of them are going to go to bed, theyre going to wake up tomorrow morning and the worry is going to start again -- theyre going to worry about losing their jobs and their homes and putting their kids through school and making ends meet. How much worse is the economy going to get, Mr. President, before it gets better? THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think were going to be in for a tough several months. Weve got to get this economic recovery plan passed. Weve got to start putting people back to work. Were going to have to straighten out the credit markets and make sure that credit is flowing to businesses and individuals so that they can start investing and hiring people again. And, you know, as soon as Congress moves forward on the recovery plan, we are going to be also releasing our plan for the financial sector and regulating the financial sector. I have confidence were going to be able to get the economy back on track, but its going to take a number of months before we stop falling, and then a little bit longer for us to get back on track. Q And when it comes to the stimulus plan, the House passed its version last week, but without one Republican vote -- that disappointed a lot of people. The Senate takes up their version of the measure starting tomorrow. How important is gaining some more Republican support for that? How big a test of your leadership at this early stage of your presidency? THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, the important thing is getting the thing passed. And Ive done extraordinary outreach I think to Republicans, because they have some good ideas and I want to make sure that those ideas are incorporated. I am confident that by the time we actually have the final package on the floor that we are going to see substantial support and people are going to say this is a serious effort, it has no earmarks, were going to be trimming out things that are not relevant to putting people back to work right now. Q Can you predict a number of Republican votes -- THE PRESIDENT: No, of course not. Q You wouldnt do that? THE PRESIDENT: No, I wouldnt. But Im confident that -- look, I think that the House Democrats actually adopted a number of ideas that the House Republicans had offered. Obviously, the House Republicans wanted to make a statement. Now it moves to the Senate. Weve got 535 people who feel its their responsibility to represent their constituents and make their voices heard. So this is -- democracy is always a somewhat messy process. But the thing I want all of them to remember, and the thing Im thinking about every single day, is the thousands of people who are being laid off of their jobs right now. They cant afford politics as usual -- and old habits are hard to break, but now is the time to break them because weve got an urgent situation. Q Lets lighten up a little bit, lets move towards sports, okay? You came out and you said, look, in college football Im not crazy about the current system for determining a national champion -- THE PRESIDENT: This is true. Q -- Id rather see a play-off system like in professional baseball or professional football. So will you look into the camera right now and talk to the people of Florida and their 27 electoral votes, and tell them that the Gators are not the national champions of football? THE PRESIDENT: Wheres the camera, right here? Q There you go. THE PRESIDENT: Congratulations, Gators, on an outstanding season. Tebow is great -- wouldnt you feel better if you had beat every team that was out there through a playoff system? Q Twenty-seven electoral votes. (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT: I love you. I think they could have --- they could have taken on anybody through the playoff system. By the way, one of our Secret Service guys, his son is a tackle on the Florida Gators, so, you know, Ive got soft spot for the Gators. Q Youve got a connection. THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely. Q Lets talk about this game today. You came out --- and most Presidents dont pick a team -- you came right out and you said, look, I know the Rooneys, theyve been good friends of mine, they endorsed me. I think you got the AFC championship ball -- THE PRESIDENT: I did. Q So you said, other than my dear Bears, theyre closest to my heart. But Im having a hard time understanding how you, of all people, wouldnt associate with the Cardinals. THE PRESIDENT: Underdog -- Q I mean, it is a Cinderella story, the team that came from nowhere to the big game –- the audacity of hope. THE PRESIDENT: Not to mention the fact that Kurt Warner is close to my age. (Laughter.) Q Right, exactly. How can you turn your back on the Cardinals? THE PRESIDENT: I love Kurt Warners story. I love -- Larry Fitzgerald seems like just a wonderful young man. Its a great story. But Rooney didnt just endorse me -- that guy was out going to steel plants campaigning for me. Franco Harris was out waving towels at my rallies. Q Do you have a Terrible Towel in the other room? THE PRESIDENT: I do, actually, so Q Are you going to be waving them at the party? THE PRESIDENT: Im not going to be rubbing it in, weve got some Arizona congressmen here and I may need their vote on the recovery package. (Laughter.) Q Give me a score –- whats the score going to be in this game? THE PRESIDENT: You know, its tough to predict, but I think the Steelers are going to eke it out in a close one. Q All right. Well, last year you predicted the Patriots over my Giants. I dont have a question here, I just wanted to rub that in a little bit. (Laughter.) THE PRESIDENT: Well, Im still wondering how the guy made that catch. Q The Hail Mary? THE PRESIDENT: He has some Stickum on his helmet. Q David Tyree. THE PRESIDENT: He had Stickum on his helmet. Q They just dissected that play in about a five-minute segment on the show. THE PRESIDENT: It was one of the greatest plays in pro football history. Q Lets talk about the BlackBerry, all right? You got to keep it. THE PRESIDENT: I did. Q Can I see it? Do you have it? THE PRESIDENT: You know, I didnt bring it down here. Q No? THE PRESIDENT: No, its like Inspector Gadget -- you know, if you touched it, it might blow up. Q I kind of envision that, its like Q in the James Bond -- did they give you, like, fingerprint recognition technology or something? THE PRESIDENT: The works. The works. It turns into a car if I have to make a quick getaway. (Laughter.) Q How many people have that email address? THE PRESIDENT: A handful. Look, there are security issues involved, and so weve got to make sure that Im not creating a situation where, you know, potentially people can comprise our system somehow. Q But, like, world leaders -- can they contact you on that BlackBerry? THE PRESIDENT: Typically, world leaders are going to be contacting me through the Oval Office. They know how to reach me there. Q Sasha and Malia? THE PRESIDENT: Sasha and Malia can always contact me. Q Oprah? THE PRESIDENT: Well -- Q Maybe. Youre not going to hook me up, are you? THE PRESIDENT: Matt, do you want one? Q No, I want your email address. (Laughter.) I want to communicate with you during the game. THE PRESIDENT: I like your son, I might give it to him -- Im not going to give it to you. Jack, he might get one. Q Jack, give it to your papa, okay? (Laughter.) Let me end on some -- not only did you just become President, obviously that carries a certain amount of fame with it. But you have achieved a certain rock star status outside of that. THE PRESIDENT: Outside of my house. (Laughter.) Q Well, let me show you. This is the current issue of US Weekly, and heres a great picture of –- THE PRESIDENT: Oh, its a beautiful –- Q -- you and Michelle and your daughters. But the reason I bring this up –- I think its funny –- its a great picture. But I want to show you the cover. Look what they did –- they took you off the cover, they cut you out of it. THE PRESIDENT: Yes, its a little hurtful. Q You got replaced by Jessica Simpson. THE PRESIDENT: Yes, who is in a weight battle, apparently. (Laughter.) Yes, oh, well. Q What would you like to say to the tens of millions of people who are watching this game today? THE PRESIDENT: Well, listen, have a wonderful time. The Super Bowl is one of the finest American traditions. I want to give a special shout out to our troops overseas who are going to be watching this, because you allow not just this game to take place, but our liberties to be preserved, and were very grateful to you. Q President Obama, its a pleasure. Thanks for welcoming us to the White House. Enjoy the game. THE PRESIDENT: Have a great time. Q Thank you. We certainly will. THE PRESIDENT: Ill see if I have to eat my words again next year. Q Well see; well call you tomorrow, okay? Ill email you. (Laughter.) * * * * * Q You talked a lot during the campaign and in your inaugural address about bipartisanship, getting people to work together, about unity. And then people watched this vote on the stimulus package in the House and they saw that not one Republican voted for it. What would you say to the people who were watching that speech of yours at home and maybe the two million people who were freezing out there on the Mall who were saying, you know what, we thought we could change, and maybe we were naive. THE PRESIDENT: Oh, listen, its only been ten days. People have to recognize that its going to take some time for trust to be built not only between Democrats and Republicans, but between Congress and the White House, between the House and the Senate. You know, weve had a dysfunctional political system for a while now, and the fact that we have been able to move what is by all accounts a historic piece of legislation through this quickly and that the Senate is having a serious debate about it and we still expect it to be on my desk for signature before Presidents Day is quite an achievement. But its going to take time for people to start getting used to the fact that we dont have to score political points on every issue. Once in a while, we can take the politics out of it and just focus on getting the job done for the American people. Q You were pretty agitated this past week when the news broke of these Wall Street bonuses paid out in 2008, even as some of the firms that paid them out had their hands out looking for federal assistance. And is there some -- is there an audit underway right now, or can there be an audit that takes place to make sure that none of the taxpayers monies goes to anything but stabilizing these firms? THE PRESIDENT: Thats what Ive asked my Treasury Secretary to do -- to put together a clear set of guidelines. If a bank or a financial institution is getting relief, then theyve got to abide by certain commissions. Now, as I said when I blew off a little steam in the Oval Office, the American people dont resent folks for getting rich. Thats part of the American way. But they do expect that you share in the pain and they do expect that if taxpayers are having to pony up the bill, then these folks are going to show some restraint. Obviously theyre not doing it on their own. Were going to have to make sure that its part of the package that we put forward in terms of how we spend money in the future. Q Well, weve seen some crazy examples -- I mean, when the auto executives arrived in Washington for those hearings in Congress in those private jets, these bonuses. The American people might worry that the bailout, you know, could be off course, because if the money is going to people who simply are out of touch, its not a confidence builder. THE PRESIDENT: Right. Well, and thats why its my job as President and Congresss job to make sure that there are some rules of the road that people are going to abide by, and that weve got transparency and accountability, that this stuff is being posted. And one of the things that were going to do is put together an independent board on the recovery package that actually looks at these programs and the money before it goes out the door. Nothing is worse than finding out after the fact -- Q When its too late -- THE PRESIDENT: -- when its too late that money has been wasted. Were going to make sure that on the front end, this stuff has been evaluated. Q Its hard to estimate because there are so many different numbers going around there, Mr. President, but it seems like somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 to $350 billion in TARP money has already gone out and been spent. And youre hearing more and more people saying, its going to take much, much more. Im curious, though, have you heard anyone credible be able to put a real figure on how much its going to take to fix this -- and, B, who can say, and this money will work; it will fix the economy? THE PRESIDENT: Heres what Ive heard from a range of economists across the political spectrum: The banks, because of mismanagement, because of huge risk-taking, are now in very vulnerable positions. We can expect that were going to have to do more to shore up the financial system. We also are going to have to make sure that we set up financial regulations so that not only does this never happen again, but you start having some sort of trust in how the credit markets work again. Q Right. THE PRESIDENT: So all thats going to have to happen on parallel tracks. How much its going to end up costing taxpayers is going to depend in part on how well we manage the process, how well we are overseeing the spending. And thats why Ive said before we put out more money, what we want to do is set up very clear guidelines -- thats the charge of my Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner; thats the charge that Larry Summers, my national economic advisor, has. And I do have confidence that were going to be able to get it right, but its not going to be overnight and theres no silver bullets to this. The fact of the matter is, is that we are suffering from a massive hangover from a binge of risk-taking. Q And its still getting worse. THE PRESIDENT: And thats still getting worse. And its going to take some time for us to be able to dig ourselves out of this hole. Q One of those parallel tracks you talked about -- are you planning in the near future to announce an idea that will buy up the toxic debt from the balance sheets of these banks with perhaps a so-called bad bank, similar to what happened with the savings and loan crisis? And if so, what do you think that could cost? Because Chuck Schumer came out and said, since we dont really know what those debts are worth, this could cost $4 trillion. THE PRESIDENT: No, were not going to be spending $4 trillion worth of taxpayer money. Its conceivable that we have more -- not only is it conceivable, it is likely that the banks have not fully acknowledged all the losses that theyre going to experience. Theyre going to have to write down those losses and some banks wont make it. Other banks are going to make sure that we strengthen. All deposits are going to be safe for ordinary people, but were going to have to wring out some of these bad assets and -- Q Are you going to set up a bad bank or whatever it would be called? THE PRESIDENT: Well, I dont want to preempt an announcement next week. And theres a lot of technical aspects to it and if I say that were doing one thing, then the markets might interpret it differently from what it ends up being. But the basic principle that were going to have to see some of this debt written down, that the government is going to have to support some banks, that others that are not viable, essentially, that were going to have to do something with those assets. You know, thats all going to be part of a overall plan that not only strengthens the credit markets, but more importantly, puts people back to work, because thats what people are experiencing right now. Theyre seeing their jobs lost every single day. Their neighbors, friends, or, you know, coworkers are losing their jobs. And what they want to know is, is that Congress and the White House has a single-minded focus on making sure that people can be put back to work. Q Let me ask you about a exit strategy, and Im not talking about in Iraq here, although theres been a lot of talk about that. But do you have an exit strategy for this bailout? In other words, at some point will you say, wait a minute, weve spent this amount of money, were not seeing the results, weve got to change course dramatically -- dramatically. Is there that kind of strategy in place? THE PRESIDENT: Well, if we are doing things properly then what youll start seeing is slowly trust get rebuilt, banks balance sheets will start to strengthen, theyll start lending to each other, theyll start lending to companies, theyll start lending to small businesses. There will be some institutions that continue to be weak and were going to have to do something with them. Over time, as the market confidence is restored, then what we can do is start getting rid of some of these assets, some of the stock the taxpayers now have in some of these companies start being worth more, we sell them off to private parties, and taxpayers can recoup that money. So, you know, its going to have to happen in stages. The key thing, I think, for the public right now is they have to know that Im going to be spending all my time making sure that their money is not wasted because Im going to be, ultimately, accountable. Look, Im at the start of my administration. One nice thing about the situation I find myself in is that I will be held accountable. You know, Ive got four years -- Q Youll know quickly how people feel about whats happened. THE PRESIDENT: Thats exactly right. And, you know, a year from now, I think people are going to see that were starting to make some progress, but theres still going to be some pain out there. If I dont have this done in three years, then theres going to be a one-term proposition. And I welcome that responsibility because I think nows the time for us to start shifting and thinking about long-term economic growth. Q Let me go on quickly if I can to some other subjects. You signed an executive order in your first week that says youll close the military detention center at Guantanamo within a year. So the clock is ticking. And already youve heard the criticism, that you dont know what youre going to do with the 245 prisoners being held there. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said the decision to close Guantanamo by a year from now places hope ahead of reality. It sets an objective without a plan to get there. THE PRESIDENT: Let me say this. We had a long campaign between myself and John McCain. One thing we did not disagree on –- in fact, something that John McCain was as adamant as I was, was that we needed to close Guantanamo. Its the right thing to do. Ultimately it will make us safer. Youve already seen in the reaction around the world a different sense of America by us taking this action. Now, is it going to be easy? No, because weve got a couple of hundred of hardcore militants that, unfortunately, because of some problems that we had previously in gathering evidence, we may not be able to try in ordinary courts –- but we dont want to release. How we structure that is something that Im going to do carefully. Our lawyers are reviewing it. I have absolute confidence that ultimately were going to be able to find a mechanism, with the cooperation of the international community, with the cooperation of some very smart Republicans, like Lindsey Graham, a former JAG who knows this stuff well –- I have confidence that were going to be able to find a solution to this problem. Q Are you at all worried –- and some of these people may be released, the ones that seem to be less of a threat. But if one of those people thats released goes back and takes part in the planning of or carrying out of an attack against U.S. interests, youre going to have a Willie Horton times 100 situation on your hands. How are you going to deal with that? THE PRESIDENT: Of course Im worried about it. Look, I have to make the very best judgments I can make in terms of whats going to keep the American people safe, and whats going to uphold our Constitution and our traditions of due process. And what Im convinced of is that we can balance those interests in a way that makes all of us proud, but also assures that were not attacked. Now, can I guarantee -– or can anybody guarantee, for that matter –- that some of the people who have already been released –- keep in mind, I mean, the Bush administration released a whole bunch of folks out of Guantanamo, some of them have rejoined some of these militant organizations -- can we guarantee that theyre not going to try to participate in another attack? No. But what I can guarantee is that if we dont uphold our Constitution and our values, that over time that will make us less safe and that will be a recruitment tool for organizations like al Qaeda. Thats what Ive got to keep my eye on. Q Let me ask you about Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this is going to be a long slog, and that its our greatest military challenge. Youre going to send 30,000 additional U.S. troops in there. Can that make a difference in a country thats had 2,000 years of trouble and thats been called the graveyard of empires? THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I havent definitively authorized the 30,000 troops -– although planning has been done, and I think that it is very important that we have enough troops on the ground that were not putting those who are already there at risk, and that we can accomplish some core missions. We are not going to be able to rebuild Afghanistan into a Jeffersonian democracy. Q So whats the mission there now? THE PRESIDENT: What we can do is make sure that Afghanistan is not a safe haven for al Qaeda. What we can do is make sure that it is not destabilizing neighboring Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons. And thats going to require not only military efforts, but also diplomatic efforts. Its also going to require development efforts in a coordinated fashion. And thats why Ive asked the Joint Chiefs, that have produced a review. David Petraeus is reviewing the situation there. We assigned Richard Holbrooke as a special envoy to the region. They are all working together. They will be presenting to me a plan. But the key is the point you made –- weve got to have a clear objective. And theres been drift in Afghanistan over the last couple of years. Thats something that we intend to fix this year. Q Two last questions. One is about security –- not national security, but your own. There was an article in The Washington Post that some of the big donors who were invited to some of your inaugural functions were -- I think the word they used was shocked by how easy it was to get access to you. And they expressed concerns that not enough was being done to secure you. First of all, just your opinion on that. THE PRESIDENT: I have complete confidence in Secret Service. These guys and gals are unbelievably professional, they know what theyre doing, and I basically do what they tell me to do. Now, sometimes Im the first one to admit that it chafes a little bit being inside this bubble. Its the hardest adjustment of being President, not being able to just take a walk or –- Q I watched you walk down the halls a couple of times and theres someone in front of you and someone behind you. THE PRESIDENT: Thats exactly right. So its tough. But I have complete confidence in their ability to keep me safe. Q Last question. Theres been a massive peanut butter products recall in this country over the last several weeks. Most of the products track –- trace to one plant down in Georgia that has a bit of a history of sending out products even though there have been traces of salmonella found. The question –- the obvious question people want to know, is the FDA doing its job? THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think that the FDA has not been able to catch some of these things as quickly as I expect them to catch. And so were going to be doing a complete review of FDA operations. I dont want to prejudge this particular case, but there have been enough instances over the last several years –- and at bare minimum we should be able to count on our government keeping our kids safe when they eat peanut butter. Thats what Sasha -– Q It seems a simple thing. THE PRESIDENT: Thats what Sasha eats for lunch, probably three times a week. And I dont want to have to worry about whether shes going to get sick as a consequence of having her lunch. So we are going to make sure that we retool the FDA, that it is operating in a highly professional fashion, and most importantly, that we prevent these things, as opposed to trying to catch them after theyve already occurred. Q I really appreciate your time. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much. Q Thank you. * * * * * Q Has there been any surprise in terms of life in the White House? Is there something that the White House has you didnt think they had, or doesnt have you thought they did have? THE PRESIDENT: You know, the bowling alley doesnt seem to be improving my game. (Laughter.) Thats the one thing Ive noticed. Q Have you used it? THE PRESIDENT: We did. We took the kids down and I wanted to use the bumpers, but Michelle said, thats only -- Q If it doesnt work, you had the gutters at least? Thats good -- its good to know youre not cheating in bowling, good. (Laughter.) Youre playing horse on the basketball court. THE PRESIDENT: Thats right, playing horse on the basketball court. There is a horseshoe pitch out there, so Im going to have to practice that a little bit. Q After 12 days -- its a minuscule amount of time -- are you and Mrs. Obama more or less confident that you can keep a real sense of normalcy in the girls lives? THE PRESIDENT: You know, I think that were going to be okay. Look, Malia is 10, so three years from now shes 13 -- who knows what happens to teenagers. Q Right. THE PRESIDENT: But if there are a pair of kids who can handle this weird fishbowl, its those two. Theyre just even-keeled, theyre happy, cheerful -- the prettiest, respectful kids. Q Youre starting off from the right place. THE PRESIDENT: Thats exactly right. And having -- this is where having the mother-in-law, you know, who wont take any guff from them, really helps. So we feel pretty good about it. Q Well, we all wish you luck. THE PRESIDENT: Thank you so much. Q Go enjoy the game. THE PRESIDENT: Good. Q Thanks for your time. I really appreciate it.

Tag: 補習