Live-Blogging Obama on "The View"

There's a large studio audience for this show which taped yesterday and is airing today. An interesting fashion statement: all the women of The View are dressed in black and white. Whoopi Goldberg begins by saying that it's a historic moment in television as it's the first time a sitting president has been on daytime TV. Then the four co-hosts welcome back Barbara Walters after her long absence. After a brief chat about Barbara's experiences, the subject turns to the upcoming interview.

The following is a rough transcript that either quotes the participants or paraphrases their comments:

Whoopi Goldberg: I am happy to be the first daytime TV talk show host to say these words, 'After we come back, President Barack Obama will be here.'

BREAK

(Video of Obama being sworn in and stumbling over his words.)

Barbara Walters: We're honored to welcome the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama.

The president comes on and hugs/kisses each of the women. They're all seated on the yellow couch set: Whoopi Goldberg (WG), Barbara Walters (BW), President Barack Obama (BO), Joy Behar (JB), Sherri Shepherd (SS), Elisabeth Hasselbeck (EH).

BW:You've gotten a beating in the last month. Do you think it's wise to come on The View?

BO: I wanted to come on a show that Michelle actually watches.

BW: Do you really watch The View?

BW: Of course, and I've been on before....These couches are made for little people. and if you're taller, you have to snuggle in a little.

BW: I understand you sit down at night and do the rose and the thorn with your daughters [good and bad of the day]. In the last month, what's been the rose and what's been the thorn?

BO: Trip to Maine was the rose. We went on bike rides and hikes. They're not yet teenagers so they still like me. Malia just turned 12 and Sasha turned 9, so it was a great time.

The country's been going through a tough time. When I was inaugurated, we lost 750,000 jobs a month. We've been stabilizing the economy. We've also had two wars, the oil spill, the pandemic - H1N1. Economy is stabilizing and it's great to see the American people so resilient despite losing jobs, seeing their 401Ks go down. They were made optimistic and hopeful.

BW: Biggest thorn this past week?

BO: The reason this is hard to answer is because what the media focuses on is not what I have to focus on. I have to sign letters to families who've lost soldiers in the war. That puts things in perspective.

JB: You've signed more than 200 laws -- you've done a great deal but Fox News is hijacking the narrative. What's your narrative? Where's your attack dog to come out and tell the narrative?

BO: When times are tough, there's going to be a political argument. I volunteered for this job, politics is a contact sport. What frustrates me is the sense that we shouldn't be campaiging all the time. For the past 20 months we've been trying to govern. We're trying t o help small businesses because they generate jobs. There are legitimate differences between the parties. I try to listen to the crtiticism and take it into account.

EH: It's truly an honor to have you have here. We're a very divided nation and we hoped there'd be a uniting factor after you took office. Are you frustrated that there isn't a feeling of uniting?

BO: Yes I am. The politics of the economic recovery, the saving of the auto industry, all that is controversial. We live in a time when we're thinking about the next election. I try to set a tone that we can agree to disagree, but the media loves conflict. They won't cover stories in which we come together.

SS: We have Shirley Sherrod and a lot of people thought we'd get beyond race. Is America still racist?

BO: We've made a lot of progress. I had a phone conversation with Shirley Sherrod -- she recognizes how much progress we've made. It's a testament to how far we've come. But the problem is that a 24/7 media cycle always looking for news didn't get to the facts first. A lot of peole didn't check.

When it comes to race, there's still discrimination but we need to treat people with fairness and stand in their shoes. When you look at the next generation -- I talk to Malia and Sasha's friends -- they have healthier attitudes than Michelle and I do, and we have healthier attitudes than our parents.

WG: Remember the movie Look Who's Coming to Dinner? The character says to his father, "You think of yourself asa Negro man, and I think of myself as a man." Who are we?

BO: We're Americans going through common dreams and struggles. Everyobody here is connected and our successes are tied up. Most Americans feel this way but there's a reptilian side of our brains that says if somebody looks and sounds different, we're cautious. That's what Shirley Sherrod whas trying to say: I have my own biases, but if I look inward and reflect I can get beyond my biases.

BW: You don't describe yourself as a black President. Your mother was white. Why don't you describe yourself as biracial?

BO: When I was young and going through a teenage identity crisis, I realized  if the world saw me as African American, that was something I didn't need to run away from. We're a multiracial population. That's true of white Americans but we (African Americans) know more about it. I'm more interested in how we treat each other. What matters is am I showing other people respect?

BW: We'll be right back with President Barack Obama.

BREAK

(Clip of Obama's acceptance speech on Election Night.)

BO: I didn't have as much grey hair.

JB: The presidency ages everyone.

EH: You said the stimulus bill would cap unemployment at 8%. In my home state of Rhode Island unemployment is hurting people. You claim that there are saved jobs. It's frustrating to here you boasting about saved jobs when theyr'e losing jobs and there aren't saved jobs. How can you claim this?

BO: We gained private sectors jobs and have done so for 5 consecutive months. You're right --  it's not enough. The frustration is entirely justified. But the gains are measured not just by my standards,  ELisabeth. Economists came forward including John McCain's. They said if we hadn't saved those jobs, we'd be in a great depression right now.

EH: But saved, I don't think....

IBO: (interrupting) If your job was saved I wouldn't think you'd be unhappy. The states got saved. If the states weren't saved, we would have had to lay off firefighters, police officers,  teachers. We went through the worst crisis since the Depression. We're not bouncing back fast enough, but we've made small steps. We've met with folks in Edison NJ who want to grow and expand. We've got a bill that's tangled up in Congress. We're going to o keep pushing and the economy will grow when businesses are profitable again. We are still stagnating. When people get more confident, we'll grow.

The auto industry is a good example. When we went in to restructure, we bailed out an industry we'd been bailing out for years but never before had we asked for anything in return. Now Chrysler and GM are turning a profit and rehiring 50,000 workers. We're going to get that money back and we're developing clean car technology that will make us a world leader. We've got a long way to go. Don't bet against American workers and American ingenuity. We've bot better techonoogy, workers, and universities. We'll get our mojo back and do terrific.

BW: We need to discuss Afghanistan. Congress voted to spend another $59 bilion but a lot of Democrats refusedd to vote for it. Secret documents surfaced. We say we're there because of Al Qaeda. Why don't we get out?

BO: We need to bring an end to the war in iraq. All the leaks that came out in the wikileaks confirmed what I said during the campaign. Afghanistan is under-resourced. We're ending our combat oerations in Iraq because of the heroism of troops and the Iraqi people. We've got a lot of work to do in Afghanistan and in the areas between it and Pakistan. That's stil the epicenter of terrorism.

We need a stable Afghanistan and Pakistan. We'll give the opportunity to the Afghan government to stabilize and then we'll start thinning out troop next June. We have real chaos in this region with no functioning goverment, and terrorist affiliates are able to operate. Our military has been sacrificing. At a certain point we meed to focus on nation-builidng here, but we need to finish what whe started over there.

EH: We'll return with President Barack Obama after this break.

BREAK

JB: Back with President Obama. You thought that was tough? I want your fast responses in this lightning round. Did you know Lindsay Lohan is in jail?

BO: Knew that.

JB: Does Mel Gibson need anger management?

BO: I, I...(stumbles) I haven't seen a Mel Gibson movie in a while.

JB: Should Snookie run as mayor of Wasilla?

BO: I've gotta say I don't know who Snookie is.

JB: You don't know any pop culture and that's good news.

SS: Do you tweet?

BO: I don't tweet on a regular basis. I think some twentysomething is doing that for me. I have a blackberry but only 10 people have it. Since it's subject to the presidential records act nobody sends me anything fun.

EH: Thinkin g about switching to the iPhone?

BO: I have an iPod. (Asked about his top ten songs) I have Jay-Z. Frank Sinatra. Maria Callas. I do not have Justin Bieber but I've met him. He came to sing at the White House. He's a nice young man.

SS: Going to Chelsea Clinton's wedding?

BO: I am not going. Tough enough to have one president there.

BW: Were you invited?

BO: I was not and Bill and Hillary wanted to keep this Chelsea's thing. I"m telling you now that you all won't be invited to Malia's and Sasha's weddings. We want to maintain their privacy.

BW: Have boyse entered the picture for the girls?

BO: Thankfully not.

SS: We'll return with President Obama.

WG: You've been in office 18 months. You've not begun to walk on water though people expected you too. You're accused of being too slow on BP and too fast on Shirley Sherrod. Can you win as President? Are you on Zoloft?

BO: Last 20 months have been as challenging as they were satifying. But every American will be able to get health insurance even with pre-existing conditions. Kids can't buy cigarettes. We've got tough credit card laws. We've saved the economy from a great depression and created reforms in education so more kids will go to college.

EH: Will they have jobs when they get out?

BO: They'll create these jobs through innovating in small businesses. I feel very optimistic. The reason I seem calm at all times is because I try to take the long view. If I do a good job today, someday down the road it'll pay off.

BW: Your poll ratings are so low. Dos that bother you?

BO: Washington is obsessed with polls. I can compare and say I'm higher than Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton. I'm focused on whether or not I'm making  the best decision for the American public. Good policy is good politics.

BW: What do you want your legacy to be?

BO: This is a time when we've tackled a bunch of issues that we put off:  Health care. Education. Energy policy. I'm optimistic becasue of the American peole. They're full of drive and pluck. No reason why we shouldn't be the greatest country on earth for decades to come. We need to remind ourselves why we're great. We need to continue this extraordinary journey.

BW: Thank you for coming on.

BO: I had a wonderful time.

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