Wawancara Presiden AS terpilih Barack Obama bersama istrinya, Michelle, saat wawancara pertama setelah pemilu dengan wartawan CBS Steve Croft di Chicago, Illinois, pada 14 November. Wawancara itu ditayangkan dalam acara 60 Minutes kemarin di CBS Television Network.

Dalam wawancara itu Barack Obama berjanji menarik mundur pasukan dari Irak,menghancurkan Al-Qaeda di Afghanistan, dan menutup penjara Guantanamo. Dalam wawancara pertama yang disiarkan CBS dalam program 60 Minutes setelah pemilihan umum (pemilu) presiden, Obama menegaskan bahwa ekonomi AS tetap menjadi prioritas pertama.

"Segera setelah itu terjadi pada 20 Januari, saya akan memanggil kepala staf gabungan, aparat keamanan nasional, dan kami akan memulai menjalankan rencana penarikan mundur pasukan kita dari Irak,"tandas Obama yang berayah dari Kenya itu.

Obama menolak berkomentar atas spekulasi yang mengatakan bahwa mantan Ibu Negara Hillary Clinton akan menjadi menteri luar negeri dalam kabinetnya.

Obama juga berjanji kabinetnya akan terdiri atas wakil dari Partai Demokrat dan Partai Republik. "Salah satu tokoh Partai Republik akan masuk dalam kabinet saya dan saya telah bertemu Hillary Clinton pekan silam," papar Obama dalam acara yang disiarkan pada Minggu (16/11) wak-tu setempat atau kemarin WIB.

Pria yang menjadi Presiden AS kulit hitam pertama itu kemarin menyatakan mengundurkan diri dari kursi Senat dan memilih tiga orang kepercayaannya di Gedung Putih. ''Saya mengundurkan diri sebagai senator untuk mempersiapkan tanggung jawab yang saya pikul sebagai presiden negara kita mendatang.

Saya tidak pernah lupa dan saya tetap berterima kasih selamanya kepada semua orang yang telah membuat saya terus memberikan pelayanan publik," papar Obama. Menurut Obama, karena masalah di Afghanistan semakin buruk,AS akan memfokuskan perhatian ke negara tersebut.

"Prioritas utama bagi kita ialah menaklukkan Al-Qaeda dan menangkap Osama bin Laden hidup atau mati yang merupakan masalah krisis bagi keamanan AS," papar pria berdarah Afro- Amerika tersebut. Obama tidak menjelaskan ke mana para tahanan Guantanamo akan dipindahkan atau apakah mereka akan ditempatkan di tahanan sipil, dibawa ke pengadilan, atau dilepaskan.

Perintah untuk menarik keluar pasukan AS dari Irak atau menutup penjara Guantanamo merupakan hak prerogatif Obama sebagai presiden. Obama diperkirakan akan mencabut berbagai "perintah eksekutif"yang ditandatangani Presiden AS George W Bush. Obama menegaskan bahwa di Kongres,prioritas legislatif pertamanya ialah meloloskan paket stimulus baru untuk mengatasi krisis ekonomi.

Presiden AS terpilih itu telah menegaskan tidak akan membiarkan industri automotif, termasuk General Motors, mengalami kebangkrutan akibat krisis ekonomi. Terkait dengan hasil pertemuan konferensi tingkat tinggi Kelompok 20 (G-20), Obama memaparkan, regulasi baru di pasar keuangan penting untuk memulihkan kepercayaan konsumen.

Obama tampak tidak terlalu peduli dengan catatan buruk keuangan pemerintahan AS dengan berargumen, ekonom dari kubu kiri dan kanan sepakat bahwa mereka harus melakukan segalanya untuk membuat ekonomi bergerak lagi. "Karena itu kita tidak perlu khawatir dengan defisit tahun depan atau tahun sete-lah itu.

Dalam jangka pendek, yang paling penting ialah kita menghindari memburuknya resesi,"papar Obama. Dalam wawancara sambil ditemani istrinya, Michelle, Obama menuturkan bahwa dua putri mereka akan mendapatkan anjing seperti yang mereka janjikan.Obama menjelaskan bahwa ibu Michelle, Marian Robinson, akan ikut bersama mereka ke kediaman baru di Gedung Putih. Obama juga akan membuat pidato pertama di YouTube pada Sabtu (22/11) mendatang. ***

INI TRANSKRIP WAWANCARA OBAMA DAN STASIUN CBS

 Kroft: Are you in sync with Secretary Paulson in terms of how the $700 billion is being used?

Mr. Obama: Well, look, Hank Paulson has worked tirelessly under some very difficult circumstances. We've got an unprecedented crisis, or at least something that we have not seen since the Great Depression. And I think Hank would be the first one to acknowledge that probably not everything that's been done has worked the way he had hoped it would work. But I'm less interested in looking backwards than I am in looking forwards.

Kroft: The government has spent almost $300 billion out of the TARP program.

Mr. Obama: Right.

Kroft: Money that was set aside to help the financial industry. And nothing much has changed if you look at it. Nothing much has changed. It's $300 billion. Why is that?

Mr. Obama: I think the part of the way to think about it is things could be worse. I mean, we could have seen a lot more bank failures over the last several months. We could have seen an even more rapid deterioration of the economy, even a bigger drop in the stock market. So part of what we have to measure against is what didn't happen and not just what has happened.

Having said that, there's no doubt that we have not been able yet to reset the confidence in the financial markets and in the consumer markets and among businesses that allow the economy to move forward in a strong way. And my job as president is gonna be to make sure that we restore that confidence.

(CBS) Kroft: Once you become president, are there things that you'll change?

Mr. Obama: Well, you know I think we still have to see how this thing unfolds over the next couple of months. One area that I'm concerned about, and I've said this publicly, is we have not focused on foreclosures and what's happening to homeowners as much as I would like. We have the tools to do it. We've gotta set up a negotiation between banks and borrowers so that people can stay in their homes. That is gonna have an impact on the economy as a whole. And, you know, one thing I'm determined is that if we don't have a clear focused program for homeowners by the time I take office, we will after I take office.

Kroft: Are you being consulted by Secretary Paulson?
Is he telling you what's going on?

Mr. Obama: You know what we've done is we've assigned somebody on my transition team who interacts with him on a daily basis. And, you know, we are getting the information that's required to and we're making suggestions in some circumstances about how we think they might approach some of these problems.

Kroft: Are they listening?

Mr. Obama: Well, you know, that we'll find out.

Kroft: People are comparing this to 1932.

Mr. Obama: Right.

Kroft:Is that a valid comparison, do you think?

Mr. Obama: Well, keep in mind that 1932, 1933 the unemployment rate was 25 percent, inching up to 30 percent. You had a third of the country that was ill housed, ill clothed, unemployed. We're not going through something comparable to that. But I would say that this is as bad as we've seen since then. And if we don't take some significant steps then it could get worse.

Kroft: You have a situation right now where you have General Motors, which is in dire straits.

Mr. Obama: Yeah.

Kroft: May run out of cash by the end of the year, maybe by the end of certainly, if we believe what we read in the papers, by the time you take office.

Mr. Obama: Yeah. Well, let's see how this thing plays itself out. For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment, not just for individual families but the repercussions across the economy would be dire. So it's my belief that we need to provide assistance to the auto industry. But I think that it can't be a blank check.

So my hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all the stakeholders coming together with a plan what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like? So that we are creating a bridge loan to somewhere as opposed to a bridge loan to nowhere. And that's, I think, what you haven't yet seen. That's something that I think we're gonna have to come up with.

Kroft: Are there a lot of people that think that the country would probably be better off and General Motors might be better off if it was allowed to go into bankruptcy?

Mr. Obama: Well, you know, under normal circumstances that might be the case in the sense that you'd go to a restructuring like the airlines had to do in some cases. And then they come out and they're still a viable operation. And they're operating even during the course of bankruptcy. In this situation, you could see the spigot completely shut off so that it would not potentially permit GM to get back on its feet. And I think that what we have to do is to recognize that these are extraordinary circumstances. Banks aren't lending as it is. They're not even lending to businesses that are doing well, much less businesses that are doing poorly. And in that circumstance, the usual options may not be available.

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/16/60minutes/main4607893.shtml