http://conservativeactionalerts.com/blog_post/show/1576President Barack Obama, in a wide-ranging, reflective interview with Barbara Walters, staunchly defended his controversial policies — including sweeping health care reforms and the massive economic stimulus package — as bold but necessary steps to help transform an economy that was at the brink of collapse into one that is "growing."
"The notion that somehow you can only do one thing at once is simply not true," Obama told Walters in the interview, which aired on ABC Friday evening. "The fact is that we stabilized the financial system. ... We turned an economy that was contracting into one that was growing. We have added a million jobs over the last year to the economy."
And despite the intense criticism and political costs, the president said the health care overhaul will be "a lasting legacy that I am extraordinarily proud of."
The interview covered an array of topics, from North Korea, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2010 midterm elections and family life inside the White House to outrage over the Transportation Security Administration's new enhanced airport screening procedures.
Obama said the system — in which passengers must pass through bomb-detection scanners that penetrate clothing or undergo aggressive pat-downs that some have compared to sexual assault — is "gonna be something that evolves.
"We are gonna have to work on it," the president said. "I understand people's frustrations with it, but I also know that if there was an explosion in the air that killed a couple of hundred people ... and it turned out that we could have prevented it, possibly, ... that would be something that would be pretty upsetting to most of us — including me."
Topic: BHO is 'Extraordinarily proud' of ObamaCare (Read 616 times)