60 Minutes Interview With Obama

Presidential candidates give very few specifics in campaigns. Just the way it goes. The idea is, is that sufficient ideological vetting is performed prior to an election. This time around, we are finally getting some specifics from the new President-elect; in a slightly-lengthy interview done by CBS' Steve Kroft. Worth reading if you'd like to triangulate our upcoming leader's vision for the country. Particularly notable is this:

Kroft: There's been talk on Capitol Hill and a number of Democratic congressmen have proposed programs that are part of sort of a new New Deal. The possibility of reviving agencies like the Home Ownership Loan Corporation.

Mr. Obama: Two points I'd make on this. Number one, although there are some parallels to the problems that we're seeing now and what we say back in the '30s, no period is exactly the same. For us to simply recreate what existed back in the '30s in the 21st century, I think would be missing the boat. We've gotta come up with solutions that are true to our times and true to this moment. And that's gonna be our job.

I think the basic principle that government has a role to play in kick starting an economy that has ground to a halt is sound. I think our basic principle that this is a free market system and that that has worked for us, that it creates innovation and risk taking, I think that's a principle that we've gotta hold to as well. But what I don't wanna do is get bottled up in a lot of ideology and is this conservative or liberal. My interest is finding something that works.

And whether it's coming from FDR or it's coming from Ronald Reagan, if the idea is right for the times then we're gonna apply it. And things that don't work we're gonna get rid of.

-R