CBS’s Couric Sympathizes With Obama: ‘Is Your Confidence Ever Shaken?’

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In her Tuesday interview with President Obama, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric wondered: "You're so confident, Mr. President, and so focused. Is your confidence ever shaken? Do you ever wake up and say, ‘Damn, this is hard. Damn, I'm not going to get the things done I want to get done and it’s just too politicized to really get accomplished the big things I want to accomplish’?" [audio available here]

In her last interview with Obama, during the debate over the stimulus package in February, Couric also portrayed Obama as a victim of Washington: "You campaigned to change the culture in Washington, to change the politics as usual culture here. Are you frustrated? Do you think it is much, much harder to do that than you ever anticipated?"

Most of Couric’s latest presidential interview was aired on Tuesday’s Evening News, however, the question about Obama’s confidence was saved for Wednesday’s Early Show. At the top of the CBS morning show, co-host Maggie Rodriguez informed viewers about the President’s press conference scheduled for Wednesday night: "President Obama goes prime time tonight, taking the battle for health care reform directly to the American people."

Correspondent Bill Plante followed soon after by reporting on the President’s latest public appeal: "The President tonight will give what the staff is calling a six-month report card. But opposition to his health care reform is continuing to build, so the President tonight will tie up the recovery of the health care reform to the recovery of the economy. He'll continue trying to convince Congress and the public that things will work out, even if it's not as quickly as he had hoped."

Plante concluded his report by explaining: "The White House doesn't dispute that the health care bill now won't be finished by the August recess of Congress, as the President had wanted. But they say that he'll continue to press and press hard, even against the Democrats, who oppose it."

Tuesday’s Early Show similarly depicted Obama on offense, despite falling support for his health care plan.

Here is an excerpt of Couric’s interview aired on the Early Show:

COURIC: You're so confident, Mr. President, and so focused. Is your confidence ever shaken? Do you ever wake up and say, ‘Damn, this is hard. Damn, I'm not going to get the things done I want to get done and it’s just too politicized to really get accomplished the big things I want to accomplish’?

OBAMA: Are there days where I say, ‘boy, you know, this – this is – this is a big dose,’ absolutely. Are there days where I think that, you know, we've suffered setbacks and I've got to continually question and reexamine how I'm approaching problems, all the time. I mean, you know, there is a constant process of reevaluation and self reflection that the job forces on you. But this country just makes me confident. I – I have faith that in the end, we will do what's right for the next generation.

Here is the full transcript of Plante’s Early Show report:

7:00AM TEASE:

MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ: President Obama goes prime time tonight, taking the battle for health care reform directly to the American people.

KATIE COURIC: Do you ever wake up and say, ‘damn, this is hard’? ‘Damn, I'm not going to get the things done I want to get done and it's just too politicized’?

RODRIGUEZ: We'll have more of Katie Couric's interview.

7:02AM SEGMENT:

MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ: But first, President Obama goes prime time tonight, pushing his controversial health care plan. CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante has details for us this morning. Good morning, Bill.

BILL PLANTE: Good morning, Maggie. The President tonight will give what the staff is calling a six-month report card. But opposition to his health care reform is continuing to build, so the President tonight will tie up the recovery of the health care reform to the recovery of the economy. He'll continue trying to convince Congress and the public that things will work out, even if it's not as quickly as he had hoped. In an exclusive White House interview, the President insisted to CBS’s Katie Couric that the reforms he wants are on track.

BARACK OBAMA: I think that we're moving in the direction where at the end of the day by the time we have a bill on the floor, we will be able to say unequivocally that this is going to bend the cost curve.

PLANTE: Republicans continue to charge that the health care bills now in Congress are too expensive and are moving too fast.

MITCH MCCONNELL: Health care reform is too important to rush through and get it wrong.

PLANTE: But President Reagan's last chief of staff says the longer it takes, the harder it’ll be.

KEN DUBERSTEIN: The first hundred days are the easy days of any administration. You get to the third hundred days, which is after the August recess, and people start saying, show me the beef.

PLANTE: The White House doesn't dispute that the health care bill now won't be finished by the August recess of Congress, as the President had wanted. But they say that he'll continue to press and press hard, even against the Democrats, who oppose it. Maggie.

RODRIGUEZ: CBS's Bill Plante. Bill, thank you.