Gwen Ifill Interviews Barack Obama on Newshour with Jim Lehrer

In an in-depth interview, Sen. Barack Obama weighs in on the current U.S. economic crisis, the war in Iraq, issues of race and gender and his run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama also looks ahead to next month's contest in Pennsylvania against Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Gwen Ifill talked to the Illinois Democrat this afternoon at Beaver County Community College in Monaca, Pennsylvania.

GWEN IFILL: Senator Obama, welcome.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), Illinois: Thank you.

GWEN IFILL: The president said today we are in challenging times. You said yourself that we are teetering on the edge of a potential crisis.

When you watched what the Fed had to do over the weekend, what do you think as president you would do in reaction to this kind of crisis?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Well, obviously, there are some short-term steps that we have to take. And what we have is a crisis of confidence in the credit markets, partly because people don't know where the bottom is, in terms of bad debt that's out there, not only from the subprime lending market, but also the credit card markets and the title loan markets. And all those potential bad debts are making people afraid to do ordinary business with companies that are very credible.

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