Pool Report for Obama Appearance on "The Daily Show"

We sat in a hotel conference at the Crowne Plaza, where the Daily Show interview was piped in over a Fender amp and a computer screen.

For those needing quotes on the infomercial, Jon Stewart kindly asked the senator about it. There were also questions on then Bradly effect, Obama's white half voting against himself, the fear questions being raised by opponents, and whether anyone would want the job at this point, considering the state of the country.

Q on How you holding up?
“We are now counting down every single vote. And the crowds are terrific. And I think we've got a good shot at this thing.”

Q on the Clinton rally, “I know Florida.. Many of my people go there to retire…You might want to hold the rally early. They don't like to miss their shows at night or the early bird special at the diner.”

“No comment on that Jon. I'm trying to win Florida.”

Asked about the informecial, whether people would be disappointed.

“This is the Obama infoirmercial,” Obama said.

“I was describing this to Michelle and my daughters, and Malia, who's 10, said ‘hold up a second. Are you saying that my programs are going to be interrupted?' I said,  ‘No, we didn't buy on Disney.' So she was relieved.”

Obama said the ad is “not just a pitch for me.”

“Really what we try to do is tell a story about what's happening to families all across America. We've got four families that we feature. All of them have great hopes but all of them are struggling too, and we want to talk about  what the next four years would mean to them.”

“What I hope people come away with is, I think they'll say to themselves this election is very important. These four families that have been featured remind me ot either myself or people that I know, and I think they'll have a better sense of exactly what I want to do as President. That's all you can do. At this stage, everything that needs to be said has probably been heard by a lot of voters and what you want to do is just remind em one more time Here's what Im going to do. Not over sell, and let people make up their minds.  That's how democracy works.”

Stewart asked “If you do win, is that a mandate for socialism?” Also asked.
if all the fear stuff about socialism, phony background emails, claims that Obama is a witch, etc., had stuck.

“It just hasn't . I think that there's a certain segment of hardcore Sean Hannity fans that probably wouldn't want to go have a beer with me. There's no doubt about that.”

“But I think that the average voter, they're saying to themselves ‘what's all this stuff about? I'm trying to figure out whether I can hang on to my house.'”

“That whole socialiasm argument - that doesn't fly too well. The evidence of this seems pretty thin. I said today that I think they found proof that when I was in kindergarten I shared some toys with my friends and that's clearly a sign of subversive activity.

“I can tell you Jon that being on your program is further evidence of these tendencies,” Obama added to laughter from Stewart.

On the Bradley effect:
“They've been saying that for a while, but we're still here. …I don't think white voters have gotten this memo about the Bradley effect.”

Steawrt joked that Obama's white half might suddenly decide in the voting boothe: “I can't do this.”

“It's  a problem,” Obama quipped. “I've been going through therapy to make sure I vote properly on the 4th.”.

Stewart also asked about the relationship with McCain, and Obama repeated he lines about admiring McCain, and working together.

Obama repeated his praise of McCain, and said on all sorts of things, like global warming, he'd bring together “conservative hawks worried about us buying oil from the middle east, tree-huggers and environmentalists who are worried about the polar bears.”

Stewart last asked if there was a sense that you don't want this, after things have gone so poorly with the country lately.

“I actually think that this is the time to want to be pres. If you went into publics severice thinking you could have an impact, now is the time when you can have an impact..”