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Barack Obama Holds Press Conference

Aired November 07, 2008 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENT-ELECT: We are going to have to focus on jobs, because the hemorrhaging of jobs has an impact, obviously, on consumer confidence and the ability of people to -- to buy goods and services and can have enormous spillover effects.
And I think it's going to be very important for us to provide the kinds of assistance to state and local governments to make sure that they don't compound some of the problems that are already out there by having to initiate major layoffs or initiate tax increases.

So there are some things that we know we're going to have to do, but I'm confident that a new president can have an enormous impact. That's why I ran for president.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) from House Democrats that the stimulus package may be in trouble, that it's going to be a hard time getting out of a lame-duck session. Are you still confident that you would be able to get something done before you actually take office?

OBAMA: I want to see a stimulus package sooner rather than later. If it does not get done in the lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States.

QUESTION: Senator, for the first time since the Iranian revolution, the president of Iran sent a congratulations note to a new U.S. president. I'm wondering if, first of all, if you responded to President Ahmadinejad's note of congratulations and, second of all, and more importantly, how soon do you plan on sending low-level envoys to countries such as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, to see if a presidential-level talk would be productive?

OBAMA: I am aware that the letter was sent. Let me state -- repeat what I stated during the course of the campaign.

Iran's development of a nuclear weapon I believe is unacceptable. And we have to mount a international effort to prevent that from happening.

Iran's support of terrorist organizations I think is something that has to cease.

I will be reviewing the letter from President Ahmadinejad, and we will respond appropriately. It's only been three days since the election. Obviously, how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something that we should, you know, simply do in a knee- jerk fashion. I think we've got to think it through. But I have to reiterate once again that we only have one president at a time. And I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals to the world as a whole that I am not the president and I won't be until January 20th.

QUESTION: Picking up what we were just talking about, your meeting with President Bush on Monday. When -- he is still the decider, obviously, stating the obvious. When you disagree with decisions he makes, will you defer? Will you challenge? Will you confront? And if it becomes confrontational, could that rattle the markets even more?

OBAMA: Well, President Bush graciously invited Michelle and I to -- to meet with him and First Lady Laura Bush. We are gratified by the invitation. I'm sure that, in addition to taking a tour of the White House, there's going to be a substantive conversation between myself and the president.

I'm not going to anticipate problems. I'm going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both the president and various leaders in Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done.

And, you know, undoubtedly there may end up being differences between not just members of different parties, but between people within the same party.

The critical point and I think the critical tone that has to be struck by all of us involved right now is the American people need help. This economy is in bad shape. And we have just completed one of the longest election cycles in recorded history.

Now is a good time for us to set politics aside for a while and think practically about what will actually work to move the economy forward. And it's in that spirit that I will have the conversation with the president.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President-elect. With the country facing two wars and a financial crisis, do you think it's important for you to move especially quickly to fill key cabinet posts, such as treasury secretary and secretary of state?

OBAMA: When we have an announcement about cabinet appointments, we will make them. There is no doubt that I think people want to know who's going to make up our team.

And I want to move with all deliberate haste, but I want to emphasize "deliberate" as well as "haste." I'm proud of the choice I made of vice president, partly because we did it right. I'm proud of the choice of chief of staff, because we thought it through.

And I think it's very important, in all these key positions, both in the economic team and the national security team, to -- to get it right and not to be so rushed that you end up making mistakes.

I'm confident that we're going to have an outstanding team, and we will be rolling that out in subsequent weeks.

QUESTION: Yes, sir. To what extent -- to what extent are you planning to use your probably pretty great influence in determining the successor for your Senate seat? And what sort of criteria should the governor be looking at in filling that position?

OBAMA: This is the governor's decision; it is not my decision.

And I think that the criteria that I would have for my successor would be the same criteria that I would have if I were a voter: somebody who is capable; somebody who is passionate about helping working families in Illinois meet their -- meet their dreams.

And I think there are going to be a lot of good choices out there, but it is the governor's decision to make, not mine.

Lynn Sweet?

QUESTION: Mr. President-elect --

OBAMA: What happened to your arm, Lynn?

QUESTION: I cracked my shoulder running to your speech on election night.

OBAMA: Oh, no.

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: I think that was the only major incident during the -- the entire Grant Park celebration.

QUESTION: Thank you for asking. Here's my question. I'm wondering what you're doing to get ready. Have you spoke to any living ex-presidents, what books you might be reading?

Everyone wants to know, what kind of dog are you going to buy for your girls? Have you decided on a private or public school for your daughters?

OBAMA: Let -- let me list those off.

In terms of speaking to former presidents, I have spoken to all of them that are living. Obviously, President Clinton -- I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances.

I have re-read some of Lincoln's writings, who's always an extraordinary inspiration.

And, by the way, President Carter, President Bush, Sr. , as well as the current president have all been very gracious and offered to provide any help that they can in this transition process.

With respect to the dog, this is a major issue. I think it's generated more interest on our Web site than just about anything. We have -- we have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic. There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic.

On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me. So -- so whether we're going to be able to balance those two things I think is a pressing issue on the Obama household.

And with respect to schools, Michelle will be -- will be scouting out some schools. We'll be making a decision about that in the future.

QUESTION: You are now privy to a lot of intelligence that you haven't had access to before, in fact, much of what the president sees, I'm sure all of it.

First of all, do you -- what do you think about the state of U.S. intelligence, whether you think it needs beefing up, whether you think there's enough interaction between the various agencies?

And, second of all, has anything that you've heard given you pause about anything you've talked about on the campaign trail?

OBAMA: Well, as you know, if -- if there was something I had heard, I couldn't tell you. But --

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

OBAMA: I have received intelligence briefings. And I will make just a general statement.

Our intelligence process can always improve. I think it has gotten better. And, you know, beyond that, I don't think I should comment on the nature of the intelligence briefings.

OBAMA: That was a two-parter. Was there another aspect to that?

QUESTION: Well, just whether -- you know, absent what you've heard --

OBAMA: OK, I get you.

QUESTION: -- whether anything has given you pause.

OBAMA: I'm going to skip that.

QUESTION: Mr. President-elect, do you still intend to seek income tax increases for upper-income Americans? And if so, should these Americans expect to pay higher taxes in 2009?

OBAMA: The -- my tax plan represented a net tax cut. It provided for substantial middle-class tax cuts; 95 percent of working Americans would receive them.

It also provided for cuts in capital gains for small businesses, additional tax credits. All of it is designed for job growth.

My priority is going to be, how do we grow the economy? How do we create more jobs?

I think that the plan that we've put forward is the right one, but, obviously, over the next several weeks and months, we're going to be continuing to take a look at the data and see what's taking place in the economy as a whole.

But, understand, the goal of my plan is to provide tax relief to families that are struggling, but also to boost the capacity of the economy to grow from the bottom up.

All right. Thank you very much, guys.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And there you have it, president-elect Barack Obama with vice presidential-elect Joe Biden, having a meeting with 17 of the people they consider to be some of the smartest economic minds in the country.

They have been meeting now for the better part of the last hour in Chicago. He briefed reporters on what some of the discussion was about and what they expect that the Obama presidency will then move forward with. He talked about a lot of very important things, the stimulus needed he says for the middle class.

He, interestingly, said he would like to see this administration, the -- what is left of the Bush administration, do more, almost sounding like there was a bit of an expectation that was being placed in it on the time.

Here is what we're going to do for you. We're going to be taking you through this historic first news conference that is held by the president-elect under these real dire circumstances that our nation finds itself in right now.

Let me take you to some of the people that we're going to be talking to, because we have been pressed -- we have assembled quite an impressive panel for you here.

We're going to be joined by David Gergen, who has certainly seen or overseen many of these himself in the past. Patricia Murphy is going to be joining us as well from Citizen Jane Politics. We're also going to be joined by professor Jeff Rosensweig, Emory economist, who has been here in the past with us. And he's going to be joining us. Also, Candy Crowley is going to be joining us. She was there. You saw her just moments ago asking questions of the president-elect.

And then we have three people who really are here to represent you, three average Americans. We have Gabrielle (ph), who is a Spelman student. We have John in the middle that you see there. He is a World War II veteran, and he was sizing up Barack Obama for the very first time. And we have Eugene, who is a doctor. He's an ophthalmologist.

My thanks to all of our guests. I think we need to get started with David Gergen. And that is because David Gergen has seen and worked for so many presidents in the past.

I am wondering about your impressions. Was he steady? Was he consistent? Did seem nervous? Did he have reason to be nervous?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He has every reason to be nervous, but he is not showing much of it. This is what I would call very presidential. He seems to be assuming -- taking the weight of the world on his shoulders.

But he made it clear that he is not the president and he is not going to be pushed into action. There is one president at a time. And he is looking to George W. Bush to finish out his term before he takes action.

But I felt that, overall, he gave -- in sort of terms of the temperament, he showed a steadiness that we had seen on the campaign. He showed he wasn't going to be cowed by reporters, for example, on his Cabinet selections, that he would do it with deliberate haste, with an emphasis on the word deliberate.

And then he used the word weeks to I think sort of push the deadlines back, which suggest I think he's -- I think this Cabinet selection is turning out to be more complicated than people first envisioned. And, so, he is doing that.

But what was also striking was how consistent this was with his original campaigns plan are. It is very clear he wants to see a bailout -- I mean, he wants to see a stimulus package. Part of it may be this year. Part of it will come in his -- but if it does not get passed under President Bush, he's going to do the whole thing himself.

Clearly, he and Nancy Pelosi and others are coming to the aid of the automobile industry. Nancy Pelosi has signaled that in the last couple days. He is supporting that. Small business, state and local, he wants to come in support of that.

They want to monitor, but not take part in the bailout plan. And I thought, very, very importantly instead of delaying the rest of his program on health care, on energy, education and the like, which some people have been arguing for, that wait until we get out of this ditch and then do your rest of your program, maybe do a couple years from now. He said, there must be no delay.

That suggests he wants to move swiftly right at the beginning of this presidency.

SANCHEZ: Let's bring in Candy Crowley. She was one of those, as David Gergen referred to, who tried to press the president.

It's interesting, because you were bringing up something that you we talked about yesterday during this hour. What happens if he has information that is so totally divergent from what this administration is doing? Never before I think have we been looking at a president- elect with is coming in with such high expectations and who is so different in so many ways than his predecessor. How difficult a circumstance is that going to be for him, Candy?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think that was the whole point, of course, of his campaign, was that he would be different, change being the operative word in this campaign.

So, clearly, he is trying to set the nation on a different path. You know, he talked -- what is interesting is that Barack Obama talked about Ronald Reagan in a flattering way at one point in the campaign, because he saw Ronald Reagan as a transformational president, someone who took the country and turned it in a different direction.

That is the sort of president that Barack Obama aspires to be, to turn it in a different direction. I think -- I also want to add, Rick, that what you saw here was Barack Obama and everything he has been over the campaign.

David is perfectly right. We didn't hear anything that we hadn't heard over the course of the campaign. Here is what I want to do. Here is how I am going to go about it. Here are my priorities.

But he is very quick on his feet. I thought he was very presidential today, as I said I thought he was actually election night. So, Americans are beginning to get a taste of what sort of president he is, talking about lots of things, but, as you can see, at this point, this is not a man who wants to be pinned down to a lot of specifics.

SANCHEZ: Candy Crowley, we thank you.

There's a lot of news that we're going to be getting to, by the way, including some of the specifics that president-elect Obama was referring to at the very beginning of the speech, when he said we have gotten even more bad news economically today.

I'm going to break that down for you. I'm also be joined by professor Rosensweig from Emory University.

And the question to you is going to be pretty direct. And I'm not going to ask it now, because we have got to go to a break, but I want you to answer when we come back and I want you to think about this for a moment, because I guarantee you that most of the people who are watching us now want this question answered.

It is, quite clearly, will my taxes go up as Barack Obama becomes the president of the United States? And under what category do I have to be in for them to go up, this level, that level? I want you to answer that question for us.

I am also going to be asking some of our guests over there. If we can get that three-shot, Dee, I would like to see our three guests, average Americans. Give me either a thumbs up if you were impressed with his very first news conference, and thumbs down if you didn't, or just an even hand if you thought not enough information. Show me with your hands right now, thumbs up, thumbs up, thumbs up. We will want amplification from, all of you as well when we come back.

Stay with us.

We're also going to do this for you. I know that some of you are just now getting home from work. You didn't get to see all of what the president-elect had to say, so we're going to share some of that with you in some chunks that we have chosen, so you see at least the gist of what he said.

We will be right back. Stay with us.

This will be very informative.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back.

We would like to show you now a piece of the Barack Obama news conference he had moments ago. We know some of you have been getting home from work. We have chosen this piece. I think it lasts about a minute and 20 seconds.

Let's go ahead, Dee. Go to it now.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

OBAMA: -- in the days and weeks ahead.

First of all, we need a rescue plan for the middle class that invests in immediate efforts to create jobs and provide relief to families that are watching their paychecks shrink and their life savings disappear.

A particularly urgent priority is a further extension of unemployment insurance benefits for workers who cannot find work in the increasingly weak economy.

OBAMA: A fiscal stimulus plan that will jump-start economic growth is long overdue. I have talked about it throughout this -- the last few months of the campaign. We should get it done.

Second, we have to address the spreading impact of the financial crisis on the other sectors of our economy: small businesses that are struggling to meet their payrolls and finance their holiday inventories; and state and municipal governments facing devastating budget cuts and tax increases.

We must also remember that the financial crisis is increasingly global and requires a global response.

The news coming out of the auto industry this week reminds us of the hardship it faces, hardship that goes far beyond individual auto companies to the countless suppliers, small businesses and communities throughout our nation who depend on a vibrant American auto industry.

The auto industry is the backbone of American manufacturing and a critical part of our attempt to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: All right. We have got David Gergen standing by, as well as our other guests. And we're going to be getting to them.

First, let's go our Twitter board, because a lot of you are getting involved in this conversation already.

This one came in from Rubin James just a little while ago: "Why is it politicians ask us economists for stitches when they keep using bandages, like they are the solution?"

And, Johnny, if you would move over just a little bit to the right, so I can see this over here. There you go. All right. Let's go to the other one.

"New stimulus package? Why a new one if the old one didn't work?"

All right, some of the questions that we're going to be getting into in just a little bit.

Let's bring the professor of economics into this now, professor Rosensweig.

Very simple question, because he was asked by somebody whether his tax plan was going to be efficient and whether it would raise taxes for people. He says, "my tax plan represented," and it is interested that he used the past tense, as if it's going to change, but he says it represented a tax cut.

Direct question to you. As Americans, will our taxes go up or down under this administration?

JEFFREY ROSENSWEIG, PROFESSOR, EMORY UNIVERSITY: No tax will go up for at least two years.

He will cut taxes, as he has always promised, on the lower 95 percent of the income distribution. He will not raise taxes on anyone, because he is justifiably so worried about the economy, amplified by the terribly shocking job report this morning.

So, he has to do what it takes to govern, as opposed to campaign. There will be no tax increases, maybe in a few years --

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: So, when he does the tax increase two years from now, will it be people who clear more than $250,000, as he stated, or the $150,000, as Joe Biden once alluded to?

ROSENSWEIG: I think it might e closer to the $150,000, because what he has to do and I think rightly is to get us out of this recession, which means a lot of spending. We can talk about that stimulus package later, tax cuts. And that means huge deficits, increase of debt.

So, eventually, he's going to have to chip back at that, so I think we will see tax increases down the road, probably $150,000 and up.

SANCHEZ: That's interesting, because I think you are alluding to the fact that there are some politics involved in the decision-making, even though it is economics.

And what that means is, if the populace is depressed, the economy will be depressed.

Let's go to somebody who worked with probably the most famous president for getting the populist to think well of itself once again. Obviously, that David Gergen with the -- during the Reagan years.

How important is that, David?

GERGEN: To get the populace with you?

SANCHEZ: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

GERGEN: Oh, it is enormously important. It is -- going all the way back to Lincoln, who is one of Obama's favorite presidents, he said, with public opinion, you can get anything done. Without it, basically, you can't.

So, I think this president-elect is very sensitive to that. And it is not accidental that he is talking about this as a middle-class economic plan, a plan to grow jobs for the middle class. He did that during the campaign. He did it again today. He is very clearly aiming -- that's his constituency. He wants to keep them with him and also keep the young people with him.

And with that kind of constituency, he can govern. He can get a lot of things done. But what I am not sure -- Professor Rosensweig said -- two things I was not as clear about as he is. I do think that Barack Obama left himself wiggle room today about whether he would put in a tax on the people above $250,000 in the first two years. I don't think he took it off of the table, but I think the professor was absolutely right that he left himself room to postpone that.

I don't see the evidence that he is going to raise taxes on people above $150,000, between $150,000 and $250,000. Over time, it may well be that a lot of the costs of government are going to have to be imposed widely, but I don't see the evidence yet that he is going to actually raise the marginal tax rates on people above $150,000.

SANCHEZ: Here is the news of the day and here is what is making this so difficult for Barack Obama or any frankly president who is coming in at this time, payrolls down 10 consecutive months. That is the information that we learned today as we were preparing this newscast. Unemployment the worst in 14 years at this point.

And look at this, jobs lost in October, 240,000 jobs lost in this country in October. In fact, we can run them down for you. I think it might be illustrative for all of us to look at where the jobs are being lost in the United States.

The first one, factories, and I think we have some of these, Dee. Factories, 90,000 jobs, construction, 49,000 jobs. The list goes on and on.

In fact, go ahead. Let's go through some of these and you will see, retail, 38,000 jobs that have been lost. Next category, professional and business, 45,000 jobs lost in one month alone in this country.

We go through and see financial jobs, 24,000 jobs lost, probably having to do with banking and some of the banking center. Leisure and hospitality, hotels, 16,000 jobs lost in just the month of October.

This is the table that is set for this president-elect. We will talk about this, a whole lot more, when we are joined by Patricia Murphy, as well.

Stay with us. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And we welcome you back.

I know it's Friday. Many of you are just now getting home from work. You may have missed President-elect Barack Obama's very first news conference with reporters.

Here's a chunk of it now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I'm sure that, in addition to taking a tour of the White House, there is going to be a substantive conversation between myself and the president. I'm not going to anticipate problems. I'm going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both the president and various leaders of Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done.

And you know, undoubtedly there may end up being differences between not just members of different parties, but between people within the same party. The -- the critical point and the -- I think the critical tone that has to be struck by all of us involved right now is the American people need help. This economy is in bad shape and we have just completed one of the longest election cycles in recorded history.

Now is a good time for us to set politics aside for a while and think practically about what will actually work to move the economy forward. And it's in that spirit that I'll have the conversation with the president. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: So what is this president going to do and how bad is the situation and what's the fix? We've got Tom Coburn. He's going to be with us in just a moment. He's on the line now, the Republican representative from Oklahoma. And we also have, in fact, Patricia Murphy with CitizenJanePolitics, a Web site by women for women.

But you know who I want to bring in first? I want to bring in John, because John is a World War II veteran, which means he's old enough to remember when this country had to pull itself from its bootstraps in the past. John is sitting in the middle of our everyman panel over here.

You know, John, as I listen to these conversations and I read these numbers about how bad things are, I'm thinking WPA. I'm thinking it may be time for Americans to do something like that once again, because there's so many people unemployed and there's so much that needs to be done in this country. Give us your own personal historical reference to this.

JOHN GALLAGHER, RETIRED WAR VET: I'm one who grew up during the Depression and I know a great amount of frustration that people had. The WPA did a lot. The CCC did even more to give people something to do to improve their spirit and just give them a sense of purpose.

SANCHEZ: Do you think something like that would be effective at a time like this?

GALLAGHER: With people that don't have work to do, yes.

SANCHEZ: Tom Coburn, you're listening to this conversation. Your thoughts?

SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: Well, I think we have a difficult financial situation in front of us and it's impacting individuals at the heart of their being. And I was encouraged by Barack Obama's idea that it's time to put the partisan politics aside and work to help us all.

I don't know what the answers are. I'll wait and see. The fact is, is one of the things that was encouraging is he's going to look and see what we've done already and see how it's working. He said that would be one of the priorities. And I think you can see from the unemployment statistics today that acting as we did last month, in terms of the rescue plan and trying to increase liquidity and get credit flowing again is really important. And it's very important for the automobile industry.

SANCHEZ: But you are -- you know, you're a kind of guy that has held even his own party to its commitments. You don't like people who spend a lot of money and don't account for it. I've heard from the Republican ranks that they have problems with some of Barack Obama's plans, because he thinks -- they think that he's going to tax the citizenry way too much. Where do you stand on this? And what did you hear today that would lead you to believe that he is or isn't? COBURN: One of the hopes for Barack Obama's presidency is some of the things he stated about how we need to look at every line item in the budget and how -- you know, there is the possibility that we don't have to spend our children's futures to get out of the mess that we're in. We have over $300 billion of pure waste and fraud every year. And I think that Barack is interested in seeing that we look at that.

SANCHEZ: Would you -- would you acknowledge that it was this administration, a Republican administration, who is, at least in large measure, gotten us there?

COBURN: Well, I think -- well, I think it's everybody that's gotten us there. If you look at the votes in Congress --

SANCHEZ: Yes.

COBURN: There's no question the president signed it. But if you look at who was promoting it, it is the long-term members of Congress that are basing what their decisions are on a career on how do I get re-elected rather than how do I do what's best for the country in the long run.

SANCHEZ: Tom Coburn, thanks so much for taking time to -- thanks so much for joining us, sir. We appreciate it. Representative Tom Coburn, Republican from Oklahoma. But -- pardon me, Senator Tom Coburn. I de-ranked you there, sir. I apologize.

COBURN: No problem.

SANCHEZ: Patricia Murphy joins us now, as well. You know, that conversation we had moments ago about this country -- you know, there is so much that we need when it comes to energy -- the possibility, as Boone Pickens has mentioned, that we can go to wind, to solar -- isn't this the kind of need that could be met by American workers if the government created a WPA or a CCC Plan like we had, as John, our World War II veteran, mentioned moments ago?

PATRICIA MURPHY, CITIZENJANEPOLITICS.COM: Yes. Well, that is exactly what Barack Obama proposed even 18 months ago, when he was starting out on the campaign trail. He recognized then that jobs were a problem. Now they are a huge problem, as we know from the job numbers.

And he suggested then that we build what he called a green collar workforce -- that we go ahead and move forward with new jobs in new sectors, not try and kind of rebuild the old sectors that have gone away, but rebuild with wind power, with electro power, with all sorts of kind of different new "green jobs". And that is what he said would be a way to both get us off of foreign oil and to move us toward having a better economy with stronger jobs.

And I think that we didn't quite hear as much about those details today. But I thought that what he was talking about was very interesting, because he has this difficult job of both managing expectations and needing to build confidence among the American people. It's a tough -- it's a tough task, but it's something I think he did pretty well today.

SANCHEZ: Patricia Murphy. We'll be coming back to you in a little bit.

But we're also going to be getting the opinions of not just John, but Gabrielle and Eugene. She is a student at Spelman. He is an ophthalmologist. What's their take after listening to the future president of the United States meet with reporters and discuss his plans for the very first time, at a very important time in our nation's history.

And, Professor, we'll be coming back to you in just a little bit as well.

Stay with us. More news when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: And the populous is commenting. As a matter of fact, so many of you have watched this historic first news conference by Barack Obama and Joe Biden moments ago with us. We're going to be showing you some more clips from it, because I know a lot of you are getting home from work.

The other thing we're going to do is we're going to let your comments come into this newscast now. Let's go to our Twitter board if we can, D.?

This is Doitupkid. He says, "You have to tax somebody. Why not the people who can afford it?"

Johnny, you've got to move back just a little bit there. I'm going to scroll down here. Are you ready?

Geekmommy is watching us. She says, "Suggesting the revival of WPA? We're not that bad off yet. Last I checked, no Bushvilles like there were Hoovervilles yet." John is smiling over there.

TheModelGourmet says, "Why is everyone so nervous about Obama's tax plan? The rates are similar to what Clinton's was. Didn't we prosper then?" All good questions. And we will get a -- that we're going to get to. We're going to involve the professor in a minute.

But I'm being told now that one of the people who was in that meeting with Joe Biden and President-elect Barack Obama is going to be joining us in just a little bit. It's Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. I'm told he's going to be joining us live in just a little bit. So stand by. We're working out some of the audio details of that.

In the meantime, let's go back and listen to one of the clips from Barack Obama's very first news conference with reporters. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I do not underestimate the enormity of the task that lies ahead. We have taken some major action to date. And we will need further action during this transition and subsequent months. Some of the choices that we make are going to be difficult. And I have said before and I will repeat again -- it is not going to be quick and it is not going to be easy for us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in. But America is a strong and resilient country. And I know we will succeed if we put aside partisanship and politics and work together as one nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We're joined now by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles. Mayor, thanks so much for being with us, sir.

MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA (D), LOS ANGELES: Rick, it's great to be with you.

SANCHEZ: I appreciate it.

All right, let me take you to some questions that I think the American people are going to want answered. First of all, we're hearing about two stimulus packages -- one early on, even before Barack Obama actually takes office, and then another one later on that perhaps will provide some stimulus to low and middle incomers. What was discussed about these today?

VILLARAIGOSA: Rick, I can't discuss with any specificity what was discussed.

The purpose of this meeting of the economic advisory board during the transition was to give their ideas, both specific and general, with respect to the extent of this crisis and what we need to do to get out of it. And I can tell you that it was broad and far-ranging. There was a lot of consensus and unanimity about what's wrong and what we needed to do to fix it.

SANCHEZ: Well, let's make some news here. I mean you were there.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Listen, the American people are kind of hot and cold on this whole bailout thing. But yet --

VILLARAIGOSA: Well, I think one of the things --

SANCHEZ: Talk about that.

VILLARAIGOSA: One of the things, Rick --

SANCHEZ: Because I think people need to -- is Barack Obama going to embrace the bailout?

VILLARAIGOSA: Well, look, one of the things the President-elect made very clear today, and that is that there's only one president of the United States at one time. And so right now that president is President Bush. We're going to focus on putting a transition together. Obviously, we have a lot of ideas that we were discussing today. But I'm not at liberty to discuss the specifics of those ideas at this point.

SANCHEZ: OK. All right. But here's what I want to know then.

VILLARAIGOSA: OK.

SANCHEZ: If you're not going to give any hot scoops -- and you know I was going to continue to press you for a while on that -- what was it like in the meeting? What was the demeanor of the President- elect? What was the demeanor of Joe Biden?

VILLARAIGOSA: Now, that's a question I can answer.

SANCHEZ: There you go. Who did the most talking and how much most listening?

VILLARAIGOSA: Well, I'll tell you, the President-elect did the most listening. And I'll tell you, I had a -- I walked away with a great deal of respect for just how calm he is during an economic crisis, how willing he is to listen to a broad cross-section of experts, how engaged he was and how intelligent he was with his questions. I can tell you that anybody watching President-elect Barack Obama today in that meeting knows that he's ready and willing to roll up his sleeves and take -- tackle the tough issues that we face in America today.

SANCHEZ: Was it all economy? Was the conversation generally economy or did you move into any other area?

VILLARAIGOSA: We focused on the economy.

SANCHEZ: OK.

VILLARAIGOSA: It's the economy, the economy, the economy. And it was very, very vigorous. There was a lot of input by all of the people who participated. But again, I think the hallmark of the President- elect was that he listened, but he also was engaged and very smart with the questions and the probing way that he tried to -

SANCHEZ: It sounds like he --

VILLARAIGOSA: -- get answers.

SANCHEZ: Yes. It sounds like he kept to that steadiness that Gergen had talked about before. Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles, one of the few who was in that meeting today and privy to the details, most of which he's not sharing with us, but nonetheless we thank him for joining us today. Thank you so much, Senor Alcalde.

Let's do this. Let's come back and talk to some of the regular peeps that we have here with us today. They're going to be joining us in just a little bit, as well as your comments, Professor Rosensweig, and some of the comments that we had about the WPA and the answers that many people want to have.

And for those of you just now getting home and weren't able to see some of the President-elect's first news conference with reporters and his vice president, we'll clips of that, as well. So you can see it right here on CNN.

Don't go away. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: It seems like never before has a president been so pressured to almost begin governing before he takes over an administration. That seems to be the case as we look at the expectations and we look at the situation around Barack Obama.

Let's go to some regular people just like you at home who we've assembled here in our studio. I guess, here's the question. Eugene, doctor, ophthalmologist, I want to start with you. After watching Barack Obama, did he seem as steady or more steady than other presidents in the past? And I suppose, for the sake of comparison, let's choose the last president, President Bush, for example. Do the comparison for me and tell me what you see.

DR. EUGENE GABIANELLI, OPHTHALMOLOGIST: Well, I think he's very steady. I think what we heard today in the press conference was very similar to the issues that he had campaigned on. And so I was impressed from that standpoint.

SANCHEZ: So he sold you?

GABIANELLI: Well, I don't -- I think I believed for a while in a lot of the policies that he's been suggesting. I think the energy that we were talking about earlier -- I think --

SANCHEZ: Sure.

GABIANELLI: -- it's extremely important for America to be on board.

SANCHEZ: So it sounds like you were already on board, then?

GABIANELLI: Yes.

SANCHEZ: OK. John, I want to ask you, World War II veteran -- John thanks for your service, by the way. As you watch this president, compare him to other presidents that you've seen in the past at the beginning of the administrations. Did he seem confident, consistent, steady or not?

GALLAGHER: One of the things that has always impressed me about Obama is his confidence and his composure. He's not an easily upset man. And he seems like he has his eye on the ball and he knows where he's going and certainly what he wants to accomplish.

SANCHEZ: Gabrielle, I'm asking you the same thing. You're a college student. You don't have much experience, I imagine, with this whole political thing, as some of us older guys do. What's your impression? And compare him, if you would, to past presidents.

GABRIELLE A. RICHARDS, SPELMAN STUDENT: Well, Rick, I definitely agree with John right here. I definitely agree with him. He's very -- he holds his composure very well, no matter what anyone throws at him. In debates, he just -- he smiled and he stayed right along with what he wanted to do.

SANCHEZ: So you got, essentially, what you thought you were looking for and what you've seen in the past. SANCHEZ: Let me do this because we've got --

RICHARDS: Exactly.

SANCHEZ: We've got a comment coming in now. RefinedHardwood is sending this to us. It says: "The original stimulus package should have been for the middle class. Most of the middle class credit is shot now anyway."

All right, everyone is talking, about -- professor, everyone is talking about the stimulus package. Americans seem to be expecting it again already. Is it a good thing? Is it the right thing? And who has it got to address?

ROSENSWEIG: I think we need, ultimately, two stimulus packages. One is his original plan, which is to give tax cuts for the middle class.

SANCHEZ: Right.

ROSENSWEIG: Actually, people in poverty don't pay taxes. They need help because they're unemployed or they're seriously underemployed. And when Jack spoke, the veteran, he spoke with some wisdom because although we could create some jobs in green energy, for instance, what we really is a tremendous amount of unemployed construction workers, for instance. And we saw that again today -- unemployed workers from manufacturing. We've lost four million manufacturing jobs --

SANCHEZ: How do you --

ROSENSWEIG: -- since 2000.

SANCHEZ: Yes, well, we don't build in this country --

ROSENSWEIG: Yes. So we need --

SANCHEZ: -- it seems, anymore.

ROSENSWEIG: But we need --

SANCHEZ: How do you fix that?

ROSENSWEIG: We need to be rebuilding our infrastructure. Green energy is great, but what about sewers and subway systems and bridges that are falling down and potholes? So I agree with the person who came up on Twitter. We do need the middle class tax cuts. I'm not saying give the rich tax cuts. I'm just saying this is no time to hit tax -- no time to hit tax increases, when we need even wealthier people to create businesses and create jobs. SANCHEZ: He's not an economic mind. But I'm being told by my producer now that we have Carlos Mencia standing by on the line, who's going to be joining us with his take on the beginning of a Barack Obama presidency -- political humorist that he is. He'll be joining us in just a little bit.

And, by the way, let's go to this. This is Rob saying to us, "Wow! I love Mr. Obama's plan to reenergize the economy. It's like a 21st century New Deal, but it works. History should remember it as the Obama Green Deal." There you go.

With that, lets go to a break.

Carlos Mencia, the professor, and our folks here on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: From Comedy Central, Carlos Mencia joins us now, putting on his hat as a political humorist. Here you have the President-elect of the United States holding his very first news conference with reporters. What did you think?

CARLOS MENCIA, HOST, "MIND OF MENCIA," COMEDIAN: The guy has to be the coolest sounding nerd in the history of well-educated people.

(LAUGHTER)

MENCIA: I mean, he's unflappable. I mean, it's amazing. I would be so scared if I was him. I mean, let's put it into context. Not only is he the first person of color, but he's coming into probably the most unprecedented time in our history, where we have two wars, terrorism, you know, global warming, I mean on and on and on. And the guy comes out as if he's like -- he comes out like he's the fifth Bush coming into office going, I'm going to handle it and I've got it straight. It's amazing to see.

SANCHEZ: Do you sense that, perhaps, inside there somewhere -- you're a comedian and you guys are real good at trying to figure out what oftentimes people are thinking before they say it. Do you sense that deep down he was just nervous as hell today?

MENCIA: I think that he -- I don't know. I think that he believes that he can -- that he can fix this stuff. I've got to believe that. I mean, I want him to be scared because I would be scared. I mean, if he doesn't do a great job, it's going to be hard for other minorities to make it, you know what I mean? Like, that's what I'm hoping. I'm hoping do a great job so that a guy named Luis, you know, so that our kids can be the next president, you know what I mean?

But I don't know what it is with this guy. He just -- he inspires people. But the interesting thing about like this whole economic thing -- and I got a phone call from a friend of mine who is an illegal alien.

(LAUGHTER)

MENCIA: And he was really, really worried about this. Listen, what he said to me was -- and check this out. I hadn't even thought about this. He said there's a lot of undocumented -- well, he said there's a lot of undocumented people in this country. And when American people lose their jobs, they're going to take our jobs and what are we going to do? And I was like, that's interesting. I hadn't thought about if it gets to that point where Americans, you know, say, hey, I want to do that job. I want to cook. I want to clean. What's going to happen to the undocumented workers?

SANCHEZ: Interesting perspective. Let me ask you one final question. You're a comedian. Your job is to make fun of these guys.

MENCIA: Yes.

SANCHEZ: You're going to have to be making fun of Biden and you're going to have to be making fun of Obama to make us laugh for the next four years. How are you going to make fun of Obama?

MENCIA: Well, first of all, Biden is hard to make laugh because he's just the typical boring white guy. But come on, you're telling me that a black guy with a dad from Kenya who didn't grow up in mainland America, who is well-educated, who is unbelievably articulate, who has no like what's up, yeah, yeah in him and he was raised in -- he was raised in Hawaii? If you don't think that there's unbelievable amounts of humor in that, you are so crazy.

SANCHEZ: OK. And we're starting at a good place, then, for you as a comedian. Carlos Mencia, this has been great. I hope to continue to do this again, all right?

MENCIA: Anytime.

SANCHEZ: You'll be on --

MENCIA: Call me anytime.

SANCHEZ: You'll be our assigned political humorist for this show.

MENCIA: I would love to. Let me know. Whenever you need me, I promise I'll be here for you.

SANCHEZ: Get him the contract, will you?

We'll be right back. Stay with us.

We'll finish up in just a bit. We'll take a look at the market, professor, to see what it said or reacted to as they watched the President-elect speak.

Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SANCHEZ: Oh, what a great discussion. Too bad we're going to be running out of time. Our thanks to Gabrielle, to John and to Eugene, who have joined us today, who've taken their time to come over here and give their perspective as regular Americans. And, Professor, as usual, it's always great to have you.

ROSENSWEIG: My pleasure.

SANCHEZ: You're always the smartest guy in the room. It must be tough.

Let's find out what the market is doing. Now, this is interesting, because the market was kind of down prior to the speech. And now we're looking at the numbers and it's about to ring. And it is. I can't see it, though. Can you put it up, D?

We still don't see what it is. I think it's up, though. I think the market is up today -- up 262. There you go.

With that, lets go over THE SITUATION ROOM and Wolf Blitzer.