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Obama asks for patience, perseverance on economy

— Photo: AP

Motivator-in-chief: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at a news conference at the White House in Washington on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Barack Obama, addressing public outrage over executive bonuses and anxiety about continued economic uncertainty, urged the nation on Tuesday night to be patient, pledging a presidency of perseverance that he said will eventually result in recovery from the recession.

“What I’m confident about is we are moving in the right direction,” said Mr. Obama, summing up the theme of a nearly hour-long prime-time press conference. He said “it will take many months and many different solutions to lead us out” of the current economic problems, but he sees “signs of progress.”

Pressed on his administration’s handling of the effort to force AIG executives to give back bonuses, Mr. Obama said he waited a couple of days before expressing his own outrage “because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak.”

Mr. Obama defended his latest proposal, unveiled on Tuesday by his administration, under which the government would gain the authority to take over troubled corporations such as AIG, similar to the way that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. can take over failed banks.

“It is precisely because of the lack of this authority that the AIG situation has gotten worse,” said Mr. Obama.

Much of the press conference focused on the impact of Mr. Obama’s $3.6-trillion budget on the deficit.

Addressing criticism from Republicans that his budget is “irresponsible” due to the large deficit that it creates, Mr. Obama pushed back.

“I suspect that some of those Republican critics have a short memory,” said Mr. Obama. “I am inheriting a $1.3 trillion ... annual deficit from them.”

He said his budget, if approved by Congress, would put the nation on a path to reducing the deficit by half at the end of this presidential term.

After a week that included TV appearances on “The Tonight Show” and “60 Minutes” — leading to some criticism about Mr. Obama’s offhand remarks — the President put forward a resolute approach on Tuesday night, delivering a short speech extolling his confidence.

The most personal question of the night came when Mr. Obama was asked whether his race has played a role in his actions following his election as the first African-American President.

He said his time in the White House “has been dominated by me trying to figure out how we’re going to fix the economy, and that affects black, brown, and white.”

While there was “justifiable pride” in the historic step of his election, Mr. Obama said: “that lasted about a day. ... Right now the American people are judging me exactly the way I should be judged. And that is: Are we taking the steps to improve liquidity in the financial markets, create jobs, get businesses to reopen, keep America safe? And that’s what I’ve been spending my time thinking about.” — © 2009 The New York Times News Service

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