US President Barack Obama took questions on everything from the embattled firm AIG to immigration to a second term on Wednesday at a town hall meeting in California, where the recession has taken a heavy toll.
The event in Orange County marked Obama’s first appearance as president in a state he won convincingly last year. It was designed to highlight the job-creating benefits of the US$787 billion economic stimulus plan he pushed through Congress last month.
Another such meeting was scheduled in downtown Los Angeles yesterday, where he was also scheduled to tape an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Obama defended his ambitious plan to overhaul health care, energy, education, taxes and spending policies in the coming months.
“I know some folks in Washington and on Wall Street are saying we should focus on only one problem at a time: ‘our problem,’” Obama said.
“But that’s just not the way it works,” he told a crowd of 1,300 in a hot auditorium. “You don’t get to choose between paying your mortgage bills or your medical bills.”
The administration must tackle multiple challenges at once, he said. Obama spoke for 21 minutes, then took eight questions. The first: Will he seek re-election in 2012?
“If I could get done what I think needs to get done in four years, even if it meant that I was only president for four years, I would rather be a good president — to take on the tough issues for four years — than a mediocre president for eight years,” Obama said.
Referring to the uproar over bonuses paid to executives of the largely nationalized AIG insurance company, Obama said: “I know Washington’s all in a tizzy, and everybody’s pointing fingers at each other and saying, ‘It’s their fault, the Democrats’ fault, the Republicans’ fault.’ Listen, I’ll take responsibility. I’m the president.”
One little curve ball came, however, on a topic Obama rarely mentions on his own: immigration. Before a crowd that seemed divided on the emotional, politically dangerous issue, Obama said he still supports “comprehensive immigration reform.”
The nation must find a way, he said, to strengthen its borders, while also giving about 12 million illegal immigrants a path to possible citizenship.
“People who have been here for a long time and put down roots,” he said, should have “a mechanism over time to get out of the shadows” and achieve legal status, including citizenship.
In other news, the Senate approved Ron Kirk’s nomination as the nation’s top trade official of the last remaining Cabinet posts.
The former Dallas mayor was confirmed as US trade representative by 92-5 in the Senate. He became the first black American to hold the post.
Considered a centrist on trade issues, Kirk last month said the administration would focus on enforcing existing trade deals rather than pushing through new ones during the current economic crisis.
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