Obama on Meet The Press: Economy to get worse before it improves

From the Associated Press: Obama: Economy to get worse before it improves President-elect Barack Obama said the economy seems destined to get worse before it gets better and he pledged a recovery plan "that is equal to the task ahead."

Obama also said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the survival of the domestic car-making capacity is important, yet any bailout must be "conditioned on an auto industry emerging at the end of the process that actually works."

Less than six weeks before he takes office, Obama said that help for homeowners facing foreclosure is an option as part of his plan. He sidestepped a question about when he plans to raise taxes on wealthy Americans.

Obama's interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" was his most extensive since winning the White House more than a month ago.

In the intervening weeks, the economy has showed clear signs of worsening. Employers said they eliminated more than 500,000 jobs in November alone and retailers reported disappointing holiday-season sales.

"The economy is going to get worse before it gets better," he said twice in the early moments of the interview, taped Saturday in Chicago.

The president-elect announced on Saturday he would call for the most massive spending on public works since the creation of the interstate highway system a half-century ago. In a word of caution to powerful lawmakers, he said the first priority would be "shovel-ready" projects _ those that could create jobs rights away.

"Meet The Press" 11/23/08 James Baker, William Daley, On Obama Economic Plan, Sen. Joe Liberman Full Video

This is today's full "Meet The Press" episode covering the Obama Economic Plan and featuring an interview with Senator Joe Liberman regarding how he campaigned against Barack Obama.

Joe Liberman On Meet The Press Does Not Apologize To Obama

As the Huffington Post pointed out, Senator Joe Liberman (I) Conneticut failed to say "I'm sorry" to President-Elect Barack Obama for the way Liberman went against the candidate and with Senator John McCain.

I think Liberman's darker devil believed that the American people would not elect an African American as President and so made a calculated bet -- and lost.

Here's Liberman doing the old Washington two-step:

What can we expect from the next Presidential debate?

So far we've learned about leadership style more than plans, policies, and specific substance of any initiatives because the moderators of the Presidential debates thus far haven't used their position(s) either to employ follow-up questions effectively -- or to correct misinformation before a participant has to waste their own alloted response time to correct an opponent while they SHOULD be addressing the original topic/question.

Can Schieffer out-perform Brokaw, or Ifill, and rise to at least the level of Katie Couric's follow-ups with Palin? All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.

Will they give Obama long enough to actually go into detail, or will everybody have to go check his website if they want substance?

Would we learn just as much - or more - watching them play Scrabble or Syzygy and listening to real conversation, or will we get beyond talking points to hear them actually discuss why deregulation which McCain favored for Wall Street is just as dangerous for health care?

Will McCain show leadership, or be peevish, pouty, and petty?

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Tiger Woods Amazing U.S. Open Performance Forcing Playoff

This has been a most extraordinary three days, and to prove it, we have Tiger Woods amazing come-from-behind-in-pain performance at the U.S. Open Sunday. I missed this because I was watching Tom Brokaw and friends of Tim Russert talk about Tim's contributions and remember the man. But my Mom kept me posted on the exploits of Tiger. This video says it all: