On Meet the Press this morning, President Barack Obama hit many of the same notes he did on the other Sunday morning news shows, staying on message on health care reform and Afghanistan, and trying to downplay the role of race in the opposition to him and his policies.
On health care reform, Obama told David Gregory that “we’ve agreed to about 80 percent” of what will go into the proposal and that “the key now is to narrow those differences.”
Among those differences, it would seem, is the prospect of a public health insurance option.
“The public option, I think, should be a part of this,” the President said before adding that “we shouldn’t think that somehow that’s the silver bullet that solves health care.”
And to critics of reform Obama who accuse Democrats of attempting a wild expansion of govenment, the President had a message: “Recognize that this is well within the mainstream of what Americans have been talking about for years.”
“This debate that’s taking place is not about race,” the President said, responding to comments from former President Jimmy Carter, who said last week that Obama’s opponents are at least in part motivated by racism. “It’s about people being worried about how our government should operate.”
On Afghanistan, the President said he has no “deadline for withdrawal, but I’m certainly not someone who believes in indefinite occupations of other countries.” He also said there are “some serious issues” with the recent Afghan presidential election, which has been battered by charges of voter fraud and corruption.
