(CBS News) President Obama got an earful this past week from Americans worried about the state of the economy, during his three-state heartland bus tour. CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason was invited to come along, and now reports our Sunday Morning Cover Story:
The road across the farm fields of Middle America is a long way from Washington and the White House.
This past week, the presidential motorcade cut through the heartland, stopping in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois - three states Barack Obama carried in the last election. But the faltering economy has made voters everywhere uneasy.
Please don't challenge us with more rules and regulations from Washington, D.C.," one town hall participant said.
"This is one of the most painful places I think our country has been in decades or centuries," said another.
"I don't think we should solve this debt crisis on the backs of the middle class," said another.
For three days, the president traveled in the new black, armored bus, commissioned for him by the Secret Service and nicknamed "Ground Force One."
How does he like his new bus? Mr. Obama was asked when we caught up with him in Illinois:
"You know, the bus is terrific, mainly because it allows me to get into places that otherwise we couldn't go," he said.
"It has a slightly Darth Vader quality to it," Mason opined.
"I will say that unless I'm in the front of the bus, people can't see a thing," Mr. Obama laughed.
After the bruising battle to raise the debt ceiling, the president was eager to be seen out here. Mr. Obama was about to escape on a 10-day vacation. But the economy's troubles have proved inescapable:
"This has been a scary summer for a lot of people," Mason said.
"Absolutely," said the president.
"'Cause the stock market, economy's struggling. Should Congress be back in Washington? Should you be going on vacation?"
"Well, no, because I think that, you know, if all we're doing is the same posturing that we saw before the debt limit vote, that's not gonna encourage anybody; that's gonna discourage people," President Obama said. "And the reason I'm out here is to remind people what the expectations of ordinary Americans are. In small towns like this, and in big cities all across America, they are saying to their representatives, 'Stop playing the games and get something done.'"
Complete transcript of Anthony Mason's interview with President Obama
The road into Atkinson, Illinois - population 1100 - was lined with nearly as many American flags.
Larry Eckhardt, who collects Old Glory, had planted them for people awaiting the president's arrival:
"Having an avenue of flags this long - this is about 2-3 miles - it brings a lot of emotion back to them and it kind of jars them awake and makes them realize that hey, it is a great country," Eckhardt said.
The president, who stopped in Atkinson on Wednesday, tried to reassure voters of that, too.
"There's nothing wrong with our country right now; there is something wrong with our politics," he said to applause.
At a town hall meeting in the warehouse of Wyffels Hybrids, a seed corn company, he got an earful about the economy:
"Since the debt ceiling fiasco in Washington," said Luanne Levine, "we have no consumer confidence after what has just happened."
Wyffels employees Fritz Behr, Carlie Elliot Bowman and Jeff Hartz were in the crowd.
When asked by Mason how he felt about his country today, Behr replied, "Concerned. I mean, our political process is scary and the economy is kind of on edge."
Behr voted for Obama in the last election. Hartz and Bowman voted for John McCain
"What would you like to hear from the President, right now?" Mason asked.
"Well, I'd love for him to say that, you know, our economy's going to blossom again," Bowman said.
"And I think, you know, there's a lot of people that are just tired of listening about what we need to do," said Hartz. "They want to see something happen. They want to see the results of all this talk."
When the town hall ended, we met with the president, in a back corner of the Wyffels warehouse:
"This past week your popularity hit a record low," Mason said. "What does that say to you?"
"Well, what it says to me is I'm the President of the United States and when people aren't happy with what's happening in Washington, that I'm gonna be impacted just like Congress is," Mr Obama said. "And you know, I completely understand that, we expected that.
"What I think the markets were reacting to is the fact that the economy has not grown as quick as it needs to," Mr. Obama said. "There have been a lot of headwinds, the European debt crisis, Japan, high gas prices from the Arab Spring. And so if the economy is not growing faster than two percent it means unemployment's not coming down as quick as it needs to. And what a lot of folks are worried about is that the recovery that we have been on is stalling or not moving as quickly as it needs to."
"Do you think we're in danger of another recession?" Mason asked.
"I don't think we're in danger of another recession, but we are in danger of not having a recovery that's fast enough to deal with what is a genuine unemployment crisis for a whole lot of folks out there, and that's why we need to be doing more," he replied.
"The concern last week and the week before was that the market was saying we were closer to it than we thought and that in fact the markets themselves might cause consumers to pull back and tip us into a recession," Mason said.
"Well, what is absolutely true is confidence matters," President Obama said. "We should not have had any kind of brinksmanship around the debt ceiling.
"I wish that the Speaker [John Boehner] had taken me up on a grand bargain to deal with our long-term debt and deficit," Mr. Obama said. "We still have the opportunity to fix that, it's not too late."
"People look at Washington and they think it's broken to the point of being irreparable. Do you think the damage to the process is irreparable?" Mason asked.
"I don't think it's irreparable," Mr. Obama said. "Keep in mind, there have been times where Congress was just as dysfunctional, there've been times where the country was full of vitriol in its politics. So this isn't unique in our time."
The president will propose a new jobs and economic growth package after Labor Day. But with the 2012 presidential campaign already underway, is anyone going to want to play "Let's make a deal"? The bad blood between Democrats and Republicans seems to have enshrouded the Capitol in a kind of Cold War chill
"Margaret Thatcher famously said when Gorbachev took power in Russia, 'I can do business with this man.' Can you do business with the Republican leadership?" Mason asked.
"Oh, I absolutely can do business with 'em," the president replied. "The issue's not gonna be whether I can do business with John Boehner. The issue is, if John Boehner and I are able to come to an agreement, can he sell it among his fellow Republicans inside the House of Representatives? And so far at least that's proven to be difficult."
"Have you spoken to him since that deal fell through?"
"I did speak to him, obviously we had to get at least a deal done to avoid default, which we did. But that's not good enough."
"Was that relationship damaged because of the failure of that to work?" Mason asked.
"You know, I think it raises questions, as I said, as to whether the Speaker is able to move his caucus to take tough decisions," President Obama said. "Because I know that I am willing at least to go to my party, to go to my fellow Democrats and say to them, 'You know what? Even if there's some things that you think aren't good short-term politics, this is good for the country and we should be willing to go ahead and find the kinds of common ground and compromise that allows us to move the country forward.' And if that's happening on both sides, there no reason why we can't solve problems."
Along the roads in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois ... and at the Wyffels warehouse ... Mr. Obama was given mostly a warm reception this past week.
"You have some appreciation for what he's going through," said Jeff Hartz. "But you know, the reality is the same when he drove out of the building as it is when he drove into it. So, you know we gotta lot of issues and we gotta figure out how to fix 'em."
On the last day of his listening tour, in Galesburg, Illinois, the president made a surprise visit to the high school, and used a break in football practice to give the Silver Streaks a pep talk on the importance of teamwork.
"Football teaches you a lot about how to play as a team," the president said. "Obviously that's part of what we need as a country is everybody chipping in and playing as a team and being motivated and doing their best."
It was just another speech. But as the president surely knows, when a team doesn't play together, the coach is usually the first to get fired.
"I'm looking at this football game behind you: Has Washington turned out to be more of a contact sport than you thought it was gonna be?" Mason asked.
"No, I think that the the truth is I think politics in America have always been a contact sport. And it's not like I had a breeze campaigning to get to Washington," Mr. Obama said.
"I want to let you know of one thing," one man said to Mr. Obama: "I am not disappointed in you, like Michele Bachmann wants everyone to believe."
"Thank you," the president replied.
"You know, I think you've gotta have a pretty thick skin to be a president of the United States," Mr. Obama told Mason. "And you know, outta necessity, I read a lot of history these days, and you know, when you see what they said about Jefferson, what they said about Lincoln, what they said about some pretty good presidents, it makes you feel a little bit better."
"Is your skin as thick as you thought it would be?" Mason asked.
"Thicker!" he laughed.
The road across the farm fields of Middle America is a long way from Washington and the White House.
This past week, the presidential motorcade cut through the heartland, stopping in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois - three states Barack Obama carried in the last election. But the faltering economy has made voters everywhere uneasy.
Please don't challenge us with more rules and regulations from Washington, D.C.," one town hall participant said.
"This is one of the most painful places I think our country has been in decades or centuries," said another.
"I don't think we should solve this debt crisis on the backs of the middle class," said another.
For three days, the president traveled in the new black, armored bus, commissioned for him by the Secret Service and nicknamed "Ground Force One."
How does he like his new bus? Mr. Obama was asked when we caught up with him in Illinois:
"You know, the bus is terrific, mainly because it allows me to get into places that otherwise we couldn't go," he said.
"It has a slightly Darth Vader quality to it," Mason opined.
"I will say that unless I'm in the front of the bus, people can't see a thing," Mr. Obama laughed.
After the bruising battle to raise the debt ceiling, the president was eager to be seen out here. Mr. Obama was about to escape on a 10-day vacation. But the economy's troubles have proved inescapable:
"This has been a scary summer for a lot of people," Mason said.
"Absolutely," said the president.
"'Cause the stock market, economy's struggling. Should Congress be back in Washington? Should you be going on vacation?"
"Well, no, because I think that, you know, if all we're doing is the same posturing that we saw before the debt limit vote, that's not gonna encourage anybody; that's gonna discourage people," President Obama said. "And the reason I'm out here is to remind people what the expectations of ordinary Americans are. In small towns like this, and in big cities all across America, they are saying to their representatives, 'Stop playing the games and get something done.'"
Complete transcript of Anthony Mason's interview with President Obama
The road into Atkinson, Illinois - population 1100 - was lined with nearly as many American flags.
Larry Eckhardt, who collects Old Glory, had planted them for people awaiting the president's arrival:
"Having an avenue of flags this long - this is about 2-3 miles - it brings a lot of emotion back to them and it kind of jars them awake and makes them realize that hey, it is a great country," Eckhardt said.
The president, who stopped in Atkinson on Wednesday, tried to reassure voters of that, too.
"There's nothing wrong with our country right now; there is something wrong with our politics," he said to applause.
At a town hall meeting in the warehouse of Wyffels Hybrids, a seed corn company, he got an earful about the economy:
"Since the debt ceiling fiasco in Washington," said Luanne Levine, "we have no consumer confidence after what has just happened."
Wyffels employees Fritz Behr, Carlie Elliot Bowman and Jeff Hartz were in the crowd.
When asked by Mason how he felt about his country today, Behr replied, "Concerned. I mean, our political process is scary and the economy is kind of on edge."
Behr voted for Obama in the last election. Hartz and Bowman voted for John McCain
"What would you like to hear from the President, right now?" Mason asked.
"Well, I'd love for him to say that, you know, our economy's going to blossom again," Bowman said.
"And I think, you know, there's a lot of people that are just tired of listening about what we need to do," said Hartz. "They want to see something happen. They want to see the results of all this talk."
When the town hall ended, we met with the president, in a back corner of the Wyffels warehouse:
"This past week your popularity hit a record low," Mason said. "What does that say to you?"
"Well, what it says to me is I'm the President of the United States and when people aren't happy with what's happening in Washington, that I'm gonna be impacted just like Congress is," Mr Obama said. "And you know, I completely understand that, we expected that.
"It frustrates people, understandably, when you've got an unemployment rate that is still too high, an economy that's not growing fast enough. And for me to argue, 'Look, we've actually made the right decisions, things would have been much worse has we not made those decisions,' that's not that satisfying if you don't have a job right now," the president said. "And I understand that, and I expect to be judged a year from now on whether or not things have continued to get better."
Things did not get better this past week. August has been a month of anxiety on Wall Street. Stocks have tumbled as renewed fears of another recession have frightened the markets."What I think the markets were reacting to is the fact that the economy has not grown as quick as it needs to," Mr. Obama said. "There have been a lot of headwinds, the European debt crisis, Japan, high gas prices from the Arab Spring. And so if the economy is not growing faster than two percent it means unemployment's not coming down as quick as it needs to. And what a lot of folks are worried about is that the recovery that we have been on is stalling or not moving as quickly as it needs to."
"Do you think we're in danger of another recession?" Mason asked.
"I don't think we're in danger of another recession, but we are in danger of not having a recovery that's fast enough to deal with what is a genuine unemployment crisis for a whole lot of folks out there, and that's why we need to be doing more," he replied.
"The concern last week and the week before was that the market was saying we were closer to it than we thought and that in fact the markets themselves might cause consumers to pull back and tip us into a recession," Mason said.
"Well, what is absolutely true is confidence matters," President Obama said. "We should not have had any kind of brinksmanship around the debt ceiling.
"I wish that the Speaker [John Boehner] had taken me up on a grand bargain to deal with our long-term debt and deficit," Mr. Obama said. "We still have the opportunity to fix that, it's not too late."
"People look at Washington and they think it's broken to the point of being irreparable. Do you think the damage to the process is irreparable?" Mason asked.
"I don't think it's irreparable," Mr. Obama said. "Keep in mind, there have been times where Congress was just as dysfunctional, there've been times where the country was full of vitriol in its politics. So this isn't unique in our time."
The president will propose a new jobs and economic growth package after Labor Day. But with the 2012 presidential campaign already underway, is anyone going to want to play "Let's make a deal"? The bad blood between Democrats and Republicans seems to have enshrouded the Capitol in a kind of Cold War chill
"Margaret Thatcher famously said when Gorbachev took power in Russia, 'I can do business with this man.' Can you do business with the Republican leadership?" Mason asked.
"Oh, I absolutely can do business with 'em," the president replied. "The issue's not gonna be whether I can do business with John Boehner. The issue is, if John Boehner and I are able to come to an agreement, can he sell it among his fellow Republicans inside the House of Representatives? And so far at least that's proven to be difficult."
"Have you spoken to him since that deal fell through?"
"I did speak to him, obviously we had to get at least a deal done to avoid default, which we did. But that's not good enough."
"Was that relationship damaged because of the failure of that to work?" Mason asked.
"You know, I think it raises questions, as I said, as to whether the Speaker is able to move his caucus to take tough decisions," President Obama said. "Because I know that I am willing at least to go to my party, to go to my fellow Democrats and say to them, 'You know what? Even if there's some things that you think aren't good short-term politics, this is good for the country and we should be willing to go ahead and find the kinds of common ground and compromise that allows us to move the country forward.' And if that's happening on both sides, there no reason why we can't solve problems."
Along the roads in Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois ... and at the Wyffels warehouse ... Mr. Obama was given mostly a warm reception this past week.
"You have some appreciation for what he's going through," said Jeff Hartz. "But you know, the reality is the same when he drove out of the building as it is when he drove into it. So, you know we gotta lot of issues and we gotta figure out how to fix 'em."
On the last day of his listening tour, in Galesburg, Illinois, the president made a surprise visit to the high school, and used a break in football practice to give the Silver Streaks a pep talk on the importance of teamwork.
"Football teaches you a lot about how to play as a team," the president said. "Obviously that's part of what we need as a country is everybody chipping in and playing as a team and being motivated and doing their best."
It was just another speech. But as the president surely knows, when a team doesn't play together, the coach is usually the first to get fired.
"I'm looking at this football game behind you: Has Washington turned out to be more of a contact sport than you thought it was gonna be?" Mason asked.
"No, I think that the the truth is I think politics in America have always been a contact sport. And it's not like I had a breeze campaigning to get to Washington," Mr. Obama said.
"I want to let you know of one thing," one man said to Mr. Obama: "I am not disappointed in you, like Michele Bachmann wants everyone to believe."
"Thank you," the president replied.
"You know, I think you've gotta have a pretty thick skin to be a president of the United States," Mr. Obama told Mason. "And you know, outta necessity, I read a lot of history these days, and you know, when you see what they said about Jefferson, what they said about Lincoln, what they said about some pretty good presidents, it makes you feel a little bit better."
"Is your skin as thick as you thought it would be?" Mason asked.
"Thicker!" he laughed.
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