Preview Of President Obama's View Interview

President Obama and the View hosts, Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd, and Elisabeth Hasslebeck (ABC)

President Obama's historic* visit to The View will air at 11 a.m. tomorrow (*historic because he's the first sitting president to visit a daytime talk show), but ABC has provided a preview—Barbara Walters asks him about his life's pleasures and challenges, "In the last month what has been the rose? And what has been the thorn?" Video is below and a transcript is after the jump:

He also explained why he's not going to Chelsea Clinton's wedding, “I was not invited to the wedding because I think Hillary and Bill, properly, want to keep this thing for Chelsea and her soon-to-be husband,” and joked, "You don’t want two presidents at one wedding. All the secret service, guests going through (metal detectors), all the gifts being torn apart."

Joy Behar has been Tweeting about the President lately—here are some from yesterday and today, "Herr Limbaugh says I will need knee pads when I interview President Obama. Please, the man is tall" (HA!), "I’m getting ready to interview President Obama. There’s so much security here at the View, you’d think Justin Bieber was back" (heh), "The President is here. Finally some good food in the Green Room," and "With President Obama in the Green Room at The View. http://twitpic.com/29j28u"

President Obama: Well in the last month the rose has to be a couple of days we took in Maine with Michelle and Sasha and Malia, and we went on bike rides and hikes, and the girls are getting old enough now where they're not quite teenagers yet, so they still like you (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER), but they are full of opinions and ideas and observations, and it's just a great age. Malia just turned 12 and Sasha just turned nine, and it couldn't have been a better couple of days.
Barbara Walters: Thorn?

President Obama: Well, where do I begin here? (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)

Barbara Walters: At the top.

President Obama: Obviously the country has gone through a tough stretch since I took office. When I was sworn in, I know you showed the Inauguration, we were losing at that time 750,000 jobs per month, the economy was shrinking at a pace of about 6.5%, which is unheard of since the Great Depression, and so the last 20 months has been a non-stop effort to restart the economy, to stabilize the financial system, to make sure that we're creating jobs again instead of losing them, and in the midst of all that we've also had the oil spill, we've also had two wars, we've also had a pandemic, H1N1, that we had to manage, and a whole host of other issues. What has been gratifying is the fact that the economy now is starting to stabilize and grow again, and what's been satisfying is seeing how resilient the American people are. As much as you said it's been tough for me, the truth is, it's not tough for me; you know I've got people, pundits on the news who may say things about me.

Barbara Walters: You noticed?

President Obama: Of course, you think about what the American people have gone through, losing jobs, seeing their home values go down, their 401Ks declining, those are the folks who I draw inspiration from because I get letters every night from them and I read them. And as tough as it's been, they remain hopeful, they remain optimistic about America, and so I don't spend a lot of time worrying about me. I spend a lot of time worrying about them.

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By Jen Chung in News on July 28, 2010 10:15 PM

Comments [rss]

teacher1

To Elizabeth Hasselbeck, why didn't you skip todays' talk with President Obama. It is clear before the election and now you true dislike for President Obama. Can't you get it, there were less jobs when President Obama was elected as President. You should have been asking Bush these questions you asking now. It is not President Obama fault we are jobless in America. President Obama inherit this situation. You seem to think it is his fault there is not jobs and it is clearly Bush fault that American people are out of jobs, the economic is not profiting. I don't understand why you are working on stage with 2 Black people and clearly you are prejudice. You shows it every day.

teacher1

Why didn't you skip today talk with President Obama. It is clear before the election and now you true dislike for President Obama. Can't you get it, there were less jobs when President Obama was elected as President. You should have been asking Bush these questions you asking now. It is not President Obama fault we are jobless in America. President Obama inherit this situation. You seem to think it is his fault there is not jobs and it is clearly Bush fault that American people are out of jobs, the economic is not profiting. I don't understand why you are working on stage with 2 Black people and clearly you are prejudice. You shows it every day.

Tower18

Yeah, yesterday was a bad day to ride my motorcycle to work (or more correctly, a bad day to ride it home). Luckily I can gain a lot of ground on cars during traffic jams...feel bad for all the car drivers. Or maybe I don't, not sure.

ihearttomjones

At first I thought it was a stupid idea to have him on The View, because those ladies are full on crazy. However the more I think about it, I don't think it's so bad. How else is he going to reach out to those stay at home moms that listen to that conservative Hasselbeck, nutso Woopie, and stupid Sheri Shepard? People say that he's not doing a good job or wasting time by doing things like the View, but he has to. Look at what he was left with when he took over the presidency? He's trying his best to clean up the mess he was left with, and of course more shit will be dropped on his plate which makes it more difficult. He's doing a better job than anyone else could have in that position. And if he has to go on a show like the View to campaign, then let him.

jpeditor

"He's doing a better job than anyone else could have in that position"

PUT DOWN THE BONG.

Madly Hatting

Can he get off the campaign trail now?

Gregoire

I'll only be satisfied is the program is concluded with Sherri and Elizabeth wrestled to the ground and painfully tased by Secret Service officers.

kazubes

that group photo says it all

RevWaldo

heerz a bedder wun ai tink (SFW)...

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/10/25/the-view/

Gotham Extremist

Being surrounded by a bunch of nasty old milfs, that's a tougher jobs than the afghan war I tell you!

bleeckerite

You sure you mean the "ilf" part? Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Såkandulæredet

What a joke, why is he on a show like this? What a waste of time. He should be governing, stop fucking about Mr. President.

Anyway, I think this is why many other countries separate Head of State and Head of Government. It's so that the Heads of State can do all this silly stuff, and the Heads of Government can actually run the government instead of pissing away the time doing tv shows, and ceremonies etc etc. President Obama seems to be more at home as Head of State than Head of Government.

jules1000

I meant "... in a civilized manner". At least I'm not shouting!!! :-)

jules1000

maybe this will be the only episode of "The View" where the 'ladies' don't all talk loudly all at the same time. That show is unbearable, especially because of their inability to actually discuss things in a civilized matter.

And that Barack Obama is on this show is ridiculous.

bleeckerite

For those of us who weren't able to catch a glimpse of the President, at least we were able to witness the more-than-horrible gridlock today because of his appearance. Also, commuters were delighted to see their buses stopped on the lincoln tunnel!