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"Who told you your incompetent little fingers had the requisite skills to edit me!"
Sorry, movie reference.
I recommend the transcript if you have the time. They definitely did a lot of cutting.
KROFT: Before you made this speech, there was a sense clearly in the press and among people in Washington that this program was in trouble.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right.
KROFT: That the healthcare reform was in trouble.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Right.
KROFT: Do you think that you do you think you changed some minds? Do you think you picked up some votes this week?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, here's a conversation I had with one of my advisors early on in this process. He said, "I've been in this town a long time. I think this is the year we're going to get healthcare done. But I guarantee you this will be pronounced dead at least four or five times before we finally get a bill passed." And so in some ways we anticipated this was just going to be difficult. Look, you're talking about one-sixth of the economy. You've got a whole range of special interests out there that are profiting from the current system and don't want to see it change. You've got a continuing habit of polarization inside of Washington that's hard to break.
And so we knew this was going to be hard. And I think what is true is that as Congress moves forward with all its legislation, the sausage making process got a lot of people confused. They didn't know which bill was which and what the program was. It was important for me to provide some clarity. And as a consequence of the speech that I gave, I think now more people understand what the bill's about. I think there's still going to be some vigorous debate. I think there's still a lot of hard work to get to get done. But I think at least it focused people's attention on why this is so important and what exactly we're trying to do.
