Iowa Public Television

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  Program: Iowa Press #3510
  Broadcast Date: Nov. 9, 2007
  

• Collection: Iowa Press: The Presidential Candidates

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Sen. Barack Obama talks about changes the Democrats have made in the past two years.

This interview took place on November 9, 2007, at Iowa Public Television. www.iptv.org/campaign08/

Glover: The premise of one of my earlier questions was the unpopularity of President Bush, but Congress is rated pretty low in polling as well. And it's argued that Democrats got control of Congress by campaigning on a number of items, none of which have happened. Why shouldn't voters being pretty cynical about that?

Obama: Well, I'm not sure none of them have happened. I mean ethics reform -- I was one of the leaders in ethics reform and we passed the toughest ethics reform since Watergate, eliminating meals and gifts and corporate jets for lobbyists and disclosing bundling. That's something that I take great pride in.

We have made progress on the minimum wage. There are a series of steps that I think have been -- made college more affordable that are significant. You're absolutely right, though, that on Iraq we have not made progress, simply because we have not been able to convince enough Republicans to shift off of the failed course of George Bush.

That is a frustration for Democrats and the American people. We have not been able to move aggressively on health care because, again, we require 60 votes in the Senate. One of the things that I intend to do as the nominee is to help us pick up more seats in a Democratic Senate so that we can actually move things through the Senate and I can sign legislation that I think is going to be important to the American people.

Tags:

• Democrats
• Barack Obama
• campaign 2008
• politics
• Congress
• Republicans

Post Date: June 4, 2008