Obama and Romney on 60 Minutes
Last night, in separate segments, both President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney were interviewed. Obama was interviewed by Steve Kroft and Romney was interviewed by Scott Pelley.
The interviews were taped separately, but the juxtaposition was intended to make it seem like a "predebate" ahead of the first official presidential debate on Oct. 3.
Both candidates tried to give detailed answers to the questions asked. The President was asked about foreign policy, specifically about pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the United States to set limits on how far Iran can go with its nuclear program, Obama replied “when it comes to our national-security decisions, any pressure that I feel is simply to do what’s right for the American people. And I am going to block out any noise that’s out there.” Reporter Steve Kroft further pressed him on whether such events as the killing of the US ambassador to Libya have caused him to rethink his support for Middle Eastern governments that came to power as a result of the Arab Spring. Obama replied “the question presumes that somehow we could have stopped this wave of change. I think it was absolutely the right thing for us to do to align ourselves with democracy. But I was pretty certain and continue to be pretty certain that there are going to be bumps in the road,” said Obama.
This remark has led to criticism for Obama describing the murder of Americans as “bumps in the road”.
Romney seemed to have some difficulty when asked by reporter Scott Pelley: “Does the government have a responsibility to provide health care to the 50 million Americans who don’t have it today?” Romney replied that the US does currently provide such care, in the form of free emergency-room care. “If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance and take them to the hospital and give them care,” said Romney. He added that different states have different ways of handling this, said Romney, as some use clinics and some use emergency rooms.
Romney has been criticized by those who argue that this way of handling health care for the uninsured is expensive, inefficient, ineffective, and as burdensome to taxpayers as any national government program.
Romney declined to provide further details about his proposed tax plan, including which deductions he would get rid of to enable the federal government to lower tax rates without losing tax revenue. Pelley said that the “devil is in the details” on tax policy, and Romney seemed to agree that presenting his proposals as he does sugarcoats the hard choices involved. “The devil’s in the details,” Romney replied. “The angel is in the policy, which is creating more jobs.”
In the interview Obama admitted some of his political ads go too far, while Romney defended his 14 percent federal tax rate as fair. To qgote Peter Grier of the blog DC Decoder, "If there was a winner, it’s 60 Minutes for showing once again what happens when skilled and prepared reporters conduct candidate interviews."
An excerpt from the program appears below, and the full interviews can be found here (part 1) and here (part 2).
The interviews were taped separately, but the juxtaposition was intended to make it seem like a "predebate" ahead of the first official presidential debate on Oct. 3.
Both candidates tried to give detailed answers to the questions asked. The President was asked about foreign policy, specifically about pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the United States to set limits on how far Iran can go with its nuclear program, Obama replied “when it comes to our national-security decisions, any pressure that I feel is simply to do what’s right for the American people. And I am going to block out any noise that’s out there.” Reporter Steve Kroft further pressed him on whether such events as the killing of the US ambassador to Libya have caused him to rethink his support for Middle Eastern governments that came to power as a result of the Arab Spring. Obama replied “the question presumes that somehow we could have stopped this wave of change. I think it was absolutely the right thing for us to do to align ourselves with democracy. But I was pretty certain and continue to be pretty certain that there are going to be bumps in the road,” said Obama.
This remark has led to criticism for Obama describing the murder of Americans as “bumps in the road”.
Romney seemed to have some difficulty when asked by reporter Scott Pelley: “Does the government have a responsibility to provide health care to the 50 million Americans who don’t have it today?” Romney replied that the US does currently provide such care, in the form of free emergency-room care. “If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance and take them to the hospital and give them care,” said Romney. He added that different states have different ways of handling this, said Romney, as some use clinics and some use emergency rooms.
Romney has been criticized by those who argue that this way of handling health care for the uninsured is expensive, inefficient, ineffective, and as burdensome to taxpayers as any national government program.
Romney declined to provide further details about his proposed tax plan, including which deductions he would get rid of to enable the federal government to lower tax rates without losing tax revenue. Pelley said that the “devil is in the details” on tax policy, and Romney seemed to agree that presenting his proposals as he does sugarcoats the hard choices involved. “The devil’s in the details,” Romney replied. “The angel is in the policy, which is creating more jobs.”
In the interview Obama admitted some of his political ads go too far, while Romney defended his 14 percent federal tax rate as fair. To qgote Peter Grier of the blog DC Decoder, "If there was a winner, it’s 60 Minutes for showing once again what happens when skilled and prepared reporters conduct candidate interviews."
An excerpt from the program appears below, and the full interviews can be found here (part 1) and here (part 2).