By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

March 23, 2009 – During an interview  aired on CBS‘s “60 Minutes,” President Obama defined his economic policy, stated his goals for the war in Afghanistan and talked about his adjustment to life in the White House. 

The president was interviewed Friday at the White House after returning from a two-day trip to California having just finished a whirl-wind of town hall meetings and a guest appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno where he also made headlines. 

The television blitz by the president isn’t near the end.  He’s also planning a prime time press conference on Tuesday night from the White House. 

Obama gave an upbeat prediction on the economy.

   “Well, we’re already starting to see flickers of hope out there,” he told CBS.  The “flicker” appears to be in the area of mortgage refinancing in light of the significantly reduced interest rates. “That promises the possibility at least of the housing market bottoming out and stabilizing,” Obama said.

When asked about all the fallout over the AIG bonuses, Obama said he understood why the American people were angry.  Admitting the AIG bonuses were “pretty egregious,” he warned any political response has to work and be “constitutional.”  Some critics of the recent bill passed by Congress allowing taxing the bonuses of those AIG executives at a very high rate might not work.

 Obama avoided saying if the law was constitutional but said he didn’t want to “hamper us [his administration] from getting the banking system back on track.”

“Now the flip side is that Main Street has to understand, unless we get these banks moving again, then we can’t get this economy to recover. And we don’t want to cut off our nose to spite our face,” Obama said.

Again, Obama has decided to take his case to the American people and is affectively doing so with all the recent television appearances.  But I’m starting to wonder how much longer he can maintain this pace.

As for the war in Afghanistan, the president indicated the United States was redefining its mission from that of his predecessor stating his goal as, “Making sure that AlQaeda cannot attack the U.S. homeland and U.S. interests and our allies. That’s our No. 1 priority.”

As for life in the White House: the president confirmed the First Lady and his daughters Malia and Sasha were adjusting quite well.

TAGS: 60 Minutes, Jay Leno, President Obama, Tonight Show, White House

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