Leadership 'isn’t just legislation,' the president said Sunday. Obama admits leadership failures

President Barack Obama acknowledged a series of errors since taking office, admitting that he misjudged the pace of the economic recovery, that he has sometimes strayed from his campaign promise to change the tone of debate in Washington, and that leadership “isn’t just legislation.”

“We were so busy and so focused on getting a bunch of stuff done that we stopped paying attention to the fact that, yeah, leadership isn’t just legislation, that it’s a matter of persuading people and giving them confidence and bringing them together, and setting a tone,” Obama said in an interview conducted Thursday for airing Sunday on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” “We haven’t always been successful at that, and I take personal responsibility for that. And it’s something that I have to examine carefully as I go forward.”


While Obama stopped short of expressing public regrets about specific policy decisions, he continued the tone of contrition that he set in a televised news conference the day after Tuesday’s midterm elections saw Republicans recapture the House and narrow the Democratic majority in the Senate.

“Part of my promise to the American people when I was elected was to maintain the kind of tone that says we can disagree without being disagreeable. And I think over the course of two years, there have been times where I’ve slipped on that commitment,” the president said. He did not appear to offer specifics.

Asked by correspondent Steve Kroft if it were true, as Republicans have suggested, that the election was a referendum on him and the Democratic Party, Obama replied: “I think first and foremost, it was a referendum on the economy. And the party in power was held responsible for an economy that is still underperforming and where a lot of folks are still hurting.

He acknowledged that he thought the economy would have improved more and that he sometimes feels powerless when it comes to spurring growth.

“I do get discouraged, I mean, there are times where I thought the economy would [have] gotten better by now,” Obama said. “As president… you’re held responsible for everything. But you don't always have control of everything. Especially an economy this big— there are limited tools to encourage— the kind of job growth that we need,” he said, quickly adding that he was “positive” that the U.S. economy will eventually rebound.

Obama conceded his drive for financial regulatory reform and some his stimulus efforts have caused business leaders to view him and his administration warily.

“There's no doubt that the relationship with the business community over the course of the last two years at times has gotten strained,” Obama said. “And, so, I think that we've got some repair work to do there.”

Obama said he has no desire to intrude further into the business sector, but that recent moves in that direction were necessitated by what he called “exceptional circumstances.”

“My overarching philosophy is not one in which we have constantly increasing government intervention,” the president said.

Obama also used the interview to signal interest in a possible deal with Republicans that could extend Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at the end of the year.

“We’re going to have a negotiation,” Obama said. “I am open to-- you know, finding a way in which, you know, they can meet their, principles and I can meet mine. But in order to do that, I think we do have to answer the question of how we pay for it…. Hopefully, we can agree on a set of facts that leads to a compromise.”

Obama’s pre-taped appearance on the widely watched Sunday TV newsmagazine show came as he was in the midst of a ten-day trip to Asia and offered an opportunity for him to inject discussion of U.S. domestic issues into news coverage of his overseas travels.

White House officials are clearly nervous that the journey—parts of which have been repeatedly postponed—could contribute to public perceptions that the president is detached from the economic concerns of everyday Americans. As a result, nearly every stop is expected to include explicit discussions of American jobs tied to foreign exports.

Obama sought in the interview to explain many of his policy efforts as necessary but unpopular medicine needed to address the sharp economic downturn, but he acknowledged that one major contributor to the “big government Obama” narrative—the health care reform law—was something he could have deferred.

“At the time, we knew that it probably wasn’t great politics,” Obama said. “I made the decision to go ahead and do it and it proved as costly politically, as we expected. Probably actually a little more costly than we expected, politically,” he added.

In a hint of a possible storyline in the upcoming 2012 presidential campaign, Obama said the health care plan he backed was specifically designed to mirror those proposed in the past by Republicans, including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, whom Obama suggested is making another bid for the White House.

“We thought that if we shaped a bill that wasn’t that different from bills that had previously been introduced by Republicans, including a Republican Governor in Massachusetts who’s now running for president, we would be able to find some common ground there. And we just couldn’t,” Obama said.

Obama also expressed impatience with his liberal supporters for not understanding the deep divisions in the country – and that overcoming them was not simply a matter of a better message.

“I will say that when it comes to some of-- my supporters— part of it, I think, is-- the belief that if I just communicated things better, that I’d be able to persuade-- that half of the country that voted for John McCain that we were right and they were wrong.

“One of the things that I think is important for people to remember is that-- you know, this country-- doesn’t just agree with the New York Times editorial page. And, I can make some really good arguments-- defending the Democratic position. And there are going to be some people who just don’t agree with me. And that’s okay.”

Obama’s admission that he hasn’t always lived up to his promise to change the tone of political debate in Washington was very close to a guilty-as-charged formulation he offered back in June 2008—at another time when he was under pressure to tack towards the political center and appear more bipartisan.

"Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified," Obama told Fortune magazine in response to a question about whether he had exaggerated the negative effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement. "Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don't exempt myself," he said.