Obama: 'I've Been Here 2 Years, Guys'

Barack Obama is keenly aware that liberals think he hasn’t done enough in office—but he thinks they’re being pessimists. “I keep in my pocket a checklist of the promises I made during the campaign,” he tells Rolling Stone. “We've probably accomplished 70%.” Does he still want to work on things like climate change? Sure. “I’ve been here two years, guys,” he says.

Other highlights from the in-depth talk:

• On Republicans: “Our working assumption was that everybody was going to want to pull together,” he says. But when, on his way to talk with Republicans about the stimulus, they put out a statement evincing party-wide opposition, he knew he was in trouble.
• On filibusters: “I’d been in the Senate long enough to know that the machinery there was breaking down.” Still, it’s frustrating. “Everything just seems to drag on.”
• On hedge-fund millionaires: “I don't think [average Americans are] that sympathetic to these guys, and neither am I.”
• On the war: “The neglect of Afghanistan had been more profound than we expected,” but don’t call the war a failure yet.
• On music: He’s listening to Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. “Those are the old standards.”

(More Barack Obama stories.)