Obama talks to Ellen about what he'll do on "Day One" (and other topics)

[NYCGirl]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0208/Obamas_postboomer_language.html

On what his first day would be like if elected

Ellen: Wow, that’s great, that’s great. Now questions about politics. Hilary says that she is ready on day one. And you say you are ready on day one as well. So my question is, number one: are you ready? What is day one like? Do you wake up at eight? Do you get breakfast.? What’s your day one?

Barack: Well, first of all I think I’ll just go into the Oval Office and sit at the desk and say,”Wow, this is really cool.” Actually, the first day after I’m sworn in and I don’t know whether that counts as day one or not, I think the day after the inauguration if I were lucky enough to serve it would be to call in the joint chiefs of staff to really start talking about how do we get our troops out of Iraq in an honorable, careful, responsible way..I am a strong believer that we need to bring this war to an end.

[AndyA]

1. Great. Bringing the troops home - that's a great start.

What's next?

How about opening a formal investigation into the crimes of the Bush Administration? Oh, wait...you don't think that Bush/Cheney have committed any "grave breaches of authority," and therefore you are against impeachment.

So that means they get away scott free, right Barack? The war based on lies. The illegal spying. The outing of a covert CIA agent during a time of war. The cronyism. The rampant corruption. The super secret Energy Policy which has resulted in the highest gas prices ever, and the highest oil company profits ever.

But that isn't a worthwhile use of your time, is it Barack?

Perhaps you want to do the same thing?

[yodermon]

11. I would agree with you

but I don't want to see him a***********.
I don't think that the office of the POTUS has any real power against the evils you listed above. I think Barack knows this too. :(

[mrreowwr_kittty]

2. The new Prez (whichever one it is) will be busy from the day after the election.

[gateley]

4. Incoming from all directions simultaneously. nt

[roguevalley]

14. the crush of congratulations from grateful people the world over

will be staggering. I know I will send a pinata myself. :evilgrin:

[gateley]

3. Excellent. Get that ball rolling.

As Biden put it, "Iraq is a huge boulder in the middle of the road." We need to be able to remove that boulder before we can continue down that road...
And I've become more and more angry that Iraq has fallen off the radar to an extent.

I couldn't have hoped for a better answer from either candidate.

[Oleladylib]

5. He covered his rear..The honorable, careful, responsible way could

take a 100 years.

[NYCGirl]

8. Or 100 days. Do you suggest the dishonorable, risky and irresponsible way? NT

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. Ah.

The John McCain strategy.

[Forkboy]

17. Thank you John.

[lebkuchen]

6. May I just say,

that is the correct answer.

We don't need hope. We need relief, asap.

[MindMatter]

10. Exactly. And nowadays, it isn't even about the war

No matter how anybody felt about the justification for getting into, we cannot keep burning $2,000,000,000 a week on that mess. None of this, nor the grandiose schemes like the missile shield, held keep us safe is any major way. The big threats we face are only made WORSE by this nearly trillion-dollar-a-year drain.

We never did get the "peace dividend". Now with Bush having ratcheted up the Pentagon spend to almost 1 trillion dollars a year (when you consider all the extra appropriations), that is the primary factor that is bankrupting our country.

If anybody doubts that Bush's governance is bankrupting us, just look at the dollar-euro exchange rate. If that is too esoteric to understand, then look at the gas pumps. That's exactly the same issue. Oil isn't $100/bbl because of shortages or because of Chinese demand, or because of the low Iraqi production. It is $100/bbl because Bush has cut the value of the dollar in half since he took office. We have all lost half of what wealth we had in 7 years.

So Obama is right. That is the most important thing anybody could do on day one. For our physical safety. For our economic safety.

Obama will do it. Hillary won't. End of story.

[gateley]

16. We need hope AND relief asap. nt

[Cha]

7. All this hope for change is going

to pay off big time!

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. "honorable, careful, responsible way" Peace with honor.

1000 years.

[timbo_houston_tx]

13. Video...

Does anyone have a video link of this yet?

[NYCGirl]

15. Yes, right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE8DZwQOJxc

And here's part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUT34wwNuCE