I'm unsure why, exactly, the Obama campaign wanted President Obama's endorsement interview with the Des Moines Register to be off the record, but I'm glad they quietly reversed their position this morning and released a full transcript. It's well worth your time to read the whole thing. President Obama addresses a number of topics that didn't come up during the debates, like the fiscal cliff...
...we can easily meet — “easily” is the wrong word — we can credibly meet the target that the Bowles-Simpson Commission established of $4 trillion in deficit reduction, and even more in the out-years, and we can stabilize our deficit-to-GDP ratio in a way that is really going to be a good foundation for long-term growth. Now, once we get that done, that takes a huge piece of business off the table.
...his hopes for immigration reform in the second term...
The second thing I’m confident we’ll get done next year is immigration reform. And since this is off the record, I will just be very blunt. Should I win a second term, a big reason I will win a second term is because the Republican nominee and the Republican Party have so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community.
...and his debunking of Mitt Romney's promised first day in office, which is straight out of a teabagger's fairy tale storybook:
[Romney]’s made commitments — his first day he’s got to introduce a bill to repeal Obamacare. And that's a commitment he cannot back off of. That is a huge, messy fight. His first day in office, he has to make some commitments in rolling back things like the Consumer Finance Protection Board we put in place on Wall Street reform. His budget — the Ryan budget — there’s no way that, if he’s president, he can avoid having a showdown on a budget that his running mate introduced, or a variation of it, because he’s committed to cutting spending by 20 percent across the board on discretionary and increasing defense spending by $2 trillion.
Obama also debunks the idea that he squandered a two-year supermajority, and he defends his record with vigor and some inspiring optimism. This is a good interview and you should read it.
