CBS released a preview clip of President Obama‘s 60 Minutes interview tonight in which the president acknowledges his failures in shaping public opinion about his policies.
Steve Kroft starts out the exchange by telling Obama, “You didn’t change Washington.” Obama immediately took issue with that and said he was able to change things that was in his “direct control,” stating, “We’re part of the first administration in modern history that hasn’t had a major scandal in the White House. In that sense, we changed some things.”
He lamented how Republicans didn’t work with him more before getting around to something similar to what some observers have noted about the president: he was a more effective communicator in campaigning than in governing.
Obama reflects on his failures on that front:
“We were very effective, and I was very effective, in shaping public opinion around my campaigns. But there were big stretches, while governing, where even though we were doing the right thing, we weren’t able to mobilize public opinion firmly enough behind us to weaken the resolve of the Republicans to stop opposing us or to cooperate with us. And there were times during my presidency where I lost the PR battle.”
Watch the clip above, via CBS.