July 6, 2011 2:50 PM

Obama says he didn't realize magnitude of recession at first

By
Stephanie Condon
Topics
Economy ,
White House

The magnitude of the worst U.S. recession since the Great Depression escaped President Obama when he first stepped into office, the president acknowledged today at his "Twitter town hall."

Asked what mistakes he made in handling the recession, Mr. Obama said today he could have done a better job at explaining "to the American people it was going to take a while to get out of this."

"Even I didn't realize the magnitude -- because most economists didn't realize the magnitude -- of the recession until" we were well into it, Mr. Obama said. He added that "setting people's expectations is part of how you respond well."

The question came during Mr. Obama's virtual town hall, in which he answered questions sent to him via the social media site Twitter.

In addition to setting different expectations, Mr. Obama said he would have responded to the housing crisis differently.

"The continuing decline in the housing market is something that hasn't bottomed out" yet, he said, while the administration has had to "revamp our housing programs several times."

The administration's marquee program, the Home Affordable Modification Program, which aims to help struggling borrowers avoid foreclosure, has been criticized from both the political left and right as a failure.

Mr. Obama defended the $830 billion stimulus package he signed in 2009, calling it "absolutely the right thing to do" to provide assistance to states, in order to keep teachers and other public workers on the payrolls and rebuild infrastructure.

More from the Twitter town hall:

Obama warns of "second recession or worse"
Obama addresses Tweet to end "war on drugs"
Obama says "back to the drawing board" on mortgage help
Obama: Time to for NASA to "revamp" space mission


  • Stephanie Condon

    Stephanie Condon is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.

Add a Comment See all 11 Comments
by sjc_1 July 6, 2011 8:44 PM EDT
At least President Obama will admit this, Bush would never admit anything. According to Bush, he NEVER did anything wrong and thus never had any regrets nor anything to improve. Bush was just another short lunatic Napoleon wannabe.
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by documemts July 6, 2011 7:33 PM EDT
This is a lame answer. However, most people I am aware of back in 07-08 did not know, refused to see, and would not listen when others who said something tried to tell them. If 'O' would of said what Really needed to be done he would of been called an alarmist and critisized for his actions and words.
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by mainer501 July 6, 2011 6:36 PM EDT
Obama is an economic ignoramus anyway. It wouldn't have made a difference if he knew how bad it was or not.
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by mikeonthebay July 6, 2011 5:50 PM EDT
A little tougher than community organizing huh? Will the last Obama supporter turn off the lights on your way out.
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by PoChoBasura July 6, 2011 5:03 PM EDT
Perhaps someone can explain the RESIGNATION process to obamma.
Maybe he just 'dosentunderstand' he can resign.
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by Progress4U July 6, 2011 5:09 PM EDT
Well, if Bush had "unserstooooooood" how to, we wouldn't have been placed in the situation we find ourselves now...
by mikevetman July 6, 2011 4:51 PM EDT
That is because it was not as bad as it is now. He and harry and nancy and the dems have made it worse, and ignored any of the fixes. Had to prop up his buddies first with all the tax dollar cash, so they can contribute it to his re-election campaign. Then he hired 200 of his closest money donors, and filled the government with more parasitic jobs. Now he is ruining healthcare, medicare and social security. And he is perplexed! Imagine how we feel! We have been sold down the river!
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by d1545t3r July 6, 2011 5:29 PM EDT
Yeah, cause its WAY worse now. You know with the DOW up 6000 points from where it was in 2008 its gotten terrible. Stock market going up 200% in 2 years is a KILLER to the economy. Inflation has only been cut from 4.3% in 2008 to 1.6% in 2011. You are totally right, it's gotten way worse. I really hate when foreclosure rates are steadily dropping to new lows every month and the time it takes to get a loan is back to normal (5 days - 2 weeks) as opposed to the 5-8 weeks it took back in 2008 when fannie and freddie went down.
by wfw3536 July 6, 2011 4:11 PM EDT
Just another promise broken that he was going to hold unemployment under 8%. When Obama became president he said if he didn't turn the economy around in 3 years he would be a one term president. You knew he was in trouble several months ago when all of his so called great minds on his economic team start dropping out and going back to their safe university jobs. How can you be effective when the vast majority of you staff including Obama had no experience in the private sector.
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by nojoy01 July 6, 2011 4:06 PM EDT
Inbetweenideas, retm-w, if you're looking for who to blame, trust me, there's enough of that to go around for any of the political party's you care to name. Workable solutions? Well, if we can ever get away from the "my guys are right & their guys are stupid" mentality we may just be able to work our way out of this mess. If not, oh well, it was a great country & a great idea while it lasted.
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by ajvw July 6, 2011 3:40 PM EDT
you can't call it the "worst economy since the great depression" and then say you didn't understand the magnitude.
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