WASHINGTON (AFP) - US President Barack Obama does not think racism is "the overriding issue" in the fierce debate on health care but said in interviews to be aired Sunday that tempers were rising over the proper role of government.
"Are there people out there who don't like me because of race? I'm sure there are. That's not the overriding issue here," Obama insisted in an excerpt of an interview to be broadcast on the CNN show "State of the Union."
The US leader, in a media blitz to shore up popular support for health care reform, is taking to five major Sunday news programs after commandeering prime-time television earlier this month with a major address to Congress on the issue.
Obama has been forced to weigh in on the controversial issue of race after former president Jimmy Carter claimed racism was driving demonstrations and rhetoric on the president's health care reform plans and spending policy.
The "overwhelming part" of the American population is much more concerned with how health care reform will affect them, Obama stressed, according to an interview excerpt released by ABC News' "This Week" program.
The "biggest driver" for the intense opposition to his administration's proposals, Obama told the network, is likely from people who are "passionate about the idea of whether government can do anything right."
The president similarly told NBC's "Meet the Press" that it is an argument "that's gone on for the history of this republic -- and that is, what's the right role of government? How do we balance freedom with our need to look after one another?"
There has been a long-standing debate in the United States on big power plays from the White House, Obama told CNN, which is "usually that much more fierce during times of transition or when presidents are trying to bring about big changes."
The vitriolic attacks of the 1930s on then US president Franklin Roosevelt "are pretty similar to the things that are said about me -- he was a communist, he was a socialist," Obama said according to a CNN exerpt.
On the CBS show "Face the Nation," Obama said he thought that "health care has become a proxy for a broader set of issues about how much government should be involved in our economy.
"Even though we're having a passionate disagreement here, we can be civil with each other, and we can try to express ourselves acknowledging that we're all patriots, we're all Americans, and not assume the absolute worst in people's motives."
Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs moved this week to calm temperatures after Carter said much of the criticism leveled at Obama, America's first black president, was the result of racism.
"The president does not believe that the criticism comes based on the color of his skin," Gibbs said.
In an interview with NBC on Tuesday, 84-year-old Carter had said he thought that "an overwhelming proportion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, he's African-American."
The debate exploded after Republican lawmaker Joe Wilson veered from normal US political etiquette shouting "You lie!" at the president during a speech to Congress, and when thousands protested against Obama administration policies in Washington.
Since then, a succession of Democratic lawmakers and political columnists have warned that the heckling and other overt signs of public disapproval not only foster a dangerous climate but also reflect underlying racial bias.
The top Republican in the US House of Representatives, John Boehner, this week dismissed the notion that race played a role in protests against Obama's health care plan and other policies.
"The outrage that we see in America has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with the policies that he is promoting," Boehner told reporters on Thursday.
Since Obama swept to victory in elections last November there have been several incidents that have seized on Obama's race.
In December, a politician campaigning to be chairman of the Republican National Committee distributed a song titled "Barack the Magic Negro," sparking furious debate about race in American politics and the soul of the Republican party in the wake of its White House defeat.
source : ca.news.yahoo.com
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