Obama: ‘We got beat’

“The buck stops right here at my desk,” he said, borrowing a phrase from President Harry Truman. “And so whenever, as the head of the party, it doesn’t do well, I’ve got to take responsibility for it.”

The message Obama said he was taking away from the midterm loss of Democratic control of the Senate and historic GOP gains in the House is that “people want to see this city work.”

Despite the chastened general tone of the interview, Obama didn’t specify how he would approach the job any differently in terms of policy, repeating his pledge to issue a new executive order on immigration by the end of the year. He also pointed out that Congress could override his action by passing a comprehensive immigration bill.

“They have the ability, the authority, the control to supersede anything I do through my executive authority by simply carrying out their functions over there,” he said of Republicans in Congress.

Obama gave CBS’s Bob Schieffer the sit-down interview to commemorate “Face the Nation’s” 60th anniversary.

The wide-ranging post-election back and forth made news on a variety of topics.

On Obama’s decision, announced Friday, to increase the size of the U.S. military force in Iraq to up to 3,000 servicemen and women to help the Iraqi army fight the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria:

“Actually, what it signals is a new phase,” Obama said. “…[ISIS] is a threat not only to Iraq but also the region and ultimately, over the long term, could be a threat to the United States.”

“…What we knew was that Phase One was getting an Iraqi government that was inclusive and credible, and we now have done that. And so now what we’ve done is, rather than just try to halt [ISIS’] momentum, we’re now in a position to start going on some offense…what we need is ground troops — Iraqi ground troops — that can start pushing them back.”

Asked if more troops will be need before ISIS is defeated, Obama said he hoped the increase in ground troops would have the opposite effect:

“You know, as commander in chief, I’m never going to say never. But what, you know, the commanders who presented the plan to me say is that we may actually see fewer troops over time, because now we’re seeing coalition members start to partner with us on the training and assist effort.”

On the secret letter to Iran’s supreme religious leader about the possibility of Washington and Tehran cooperating in the fight against ISIS and the potential for compromise on a nuclear deal:

“I’d tend not to comment on any communications that I have with various leaders. I’ve got a whole bunch of channels where we’re communicating to various leaders around the world.

“Our No. 1 priority with respect to Iran is making sure they don’t get a nuclear weapon… We’ve now had significant negotiations. They have abided by freezing their program and, in fact, reducing their stockpile of weapons-grade nuclear material. And the question now is, are we going to be able to close this final gap?”

“…The second thing that we have an interest in is that Iran has influence over Shia, both in Syria and in Iraq, and we do have a shared enemy in [ISIS]. But I’ve been very clear publicly and privately, we are not connecting in any way the nuclear negotiations from the issue of [ISIS]. We’re not coordinating with Iran on [ISIS]. There is some de-conflicting, in the sense that since they have some troops or militias they control in and around Baghdad, yeah, we let them know, ‘Don’t mess with us, we’re not here to mess with you, we’re focused on our common enemy.’ But there’s no coordination or common battle plan, and there will not be because — and this brings me to the third issue — we still have big differences with Iran’s behavior vis-a-vis our allies. Them, you know, poking and prodding at — and creating unrest and sponsoring terrorism in the region, around the world, their anti-Israeli rhetoric and behavior. So that’s a whole ‘nother set of issues which prevents us from ever being true allies.”

On what he would do differently in his final two years in office:

“I think that one thing that I do need to constantly remind myself and my team of is, it’s not enough just to build a better mousetrap. People don’t automatically come beating to your door. We’ve got to sell it, we’ve got to reach out to the other side, and where possible, persuade.”

On whether he still believes Syrian President Bashar Assad needs to go:

“It is still our policy and it’s an almost absolute certainty that he has lost legitimacy with such a large portion of the country by dropping barrel bombs and killing children and destroying villages that were defenseless that he can’t regain the kind of legitimacy that would stitch that country back together again.

“Now, obviously, our priority is to go after [ISIS]. And so what we have said is that we are not engaging in a military action against the Syrian regime. We are going after [ISIS] facilities and personnel who are using Syria as a safe haven in service of our strategy in Iraq. We do want to see a political settlement inside of Syria. That’s a long-term proposition. We can’t solve that militarily, nor are we trying to.”

On whether change was harder to bring to Washington that he thought during his first campaign for president:

“I always thought change was going to be hard. But I will tell you, Bob, when I look back over the last six years, I am really proud of the fact that people have jobs who didn’t have them before, people have health insurance who didn’t have it before, young people are going to college who couldn’t afford it before. So we’ve made big changes. But what makes me hopeful is the American people, and change is inevitable, because we’ve got the best cards.”