President Barack Obama, in an exclusive interview with CBS News, said he won’t criticize opponent Mitt Romney for arguing that his administration hasn’t pulled America far enough out of the hole it was in four years ago, “because if I was in his shoes, I’d be making the same argument.” First Lady Michelle Obama and the president sat down with Charlie Rose in the Blue Room of the White House recently and reflected on the lessons learned during their first term. As one of the biggest lessons, the president said, “In this office, everything takes a little longer than you’d like.” When asked why he was seeking re-election, Obama said, “I think it’s important to know we did an awful lot in the first four years. But when I think about the next four years, what’s undone?”
President Obama told Rose that another term would help solidify policies he’s put in place to assert the middle class is “strong and growing” and said, “The question right now for the American people is, which vision – mine or Mr. Romney’s – is most likely to deliver for those folks?” Obama said the most frustrating thing about the presidency post is “not the hard work. It’s not the, you know, enormity of the decisions. It’s not the pace. It is that I haven’t been able to change the atmosphere here in Washington to reflect the decency and common sense of ordinary people – Democrats, Republicans, and independents – who I think just want to see their leadership solve problems. And, you know, there’s enough blame to go around for that.” Rose asked Obama if he blamed himself for atmosphere and the president responded, “Well, I think there is no doubt that I underestimated the degree to which in this town politics trumps problem-solving.”
