Aboard Air Force One enroute to Andrews Air Force Base
ROBERT GIBBS: Yes, sir, fire away. Who's first?
[REPORTER]: The GDP numbers --
GIBBS: I mean, obviously the President received a report today from the Council of Economic Advisors. Look, I think it underscores the number that we saw previously showed just how much trouble the economy is [in]. When you revise the numbers as greatly as they did I think it underscores the urgency with which the President feels we have to move to improve our economy. I think it underscores the urgency with which the administration acted correctly in moving quickly to pass a Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that could start getting this economy back on track.
It's obviously a very troubling statistic and one of the worst quarters of economic growth we've seen in half a century.
[REPORTER]: Is it worse than the White House thought it was going to be?
GIBBS: Well, I don't know when -- I'd have to ask CEA what they expected the revised number to be. I think the number denotes that economic -- the economy continued to deteriorate throughout the quarter, and that acceleration got even greater. And it shows you that businesses left stuff in warehouses and none of it moved out of the stores.
So I think it demonstrates the problems that we face and underscores the necessity to act quickly to get something done.
[REPORTER]: Can you talk a little bit more about the President's phone call to former President Bush -- how it went, why he did it, if Bush said anything?
GIBBS: From what I -- I mean, obviously I could only hear one side of the conversation. The President, before the speech in the gym, placed a call through the White House to former President Bush as a courtesy to let him know how -- what he would announce as far as the plan moving forward in Iraq. It was a fairly straightforward call.
[REPORTER]: How long did it last?
GIBBS: Several -- somewhere between several and five minutes. I don't know -- I forget exactly, and I apologize for not writing the times down. They talked a bit about that, and in the end President Obama asked President Bush how he was enjoying his new endeavor and whether they'd moved into the new house. So they talked a couple of minutes about that.
[REPORTER]: Did you get a sense if -- hearing Obama's side of the conversation, that President Bush agreed with Obama's decision on timetable?
GIBBS: I couldn't tell from what I could hear.
[REPORTER]: It didn't sound contentious to you?
GIBBS: Oh, no, no, no, not at all. Not at all.
[REPORTER]: The former NSC spokesman, Gordon Johndroe, today said that this only was possible -- this plan laid out today was only possible because of the surge, and that in fact this plan is in keeping with basically the rough outlines of what the Bush administration had thought of doing itself. How would you characterize that? And does the President believe the surge was necessary to get to this point?
GIBBS: Well, I think as the President said in the campaign, that the security situation has gotten better in the -- over the past couple years in Iraq; the political situation hasn't always followed as quickly. And insofar as the Status of Forces Agreement dictated an end to our involvement in Iraq, there may be certainly some consistency with the SOFA, but I think what the President laid out was something that was -- today was consistent with what he pledged to do in the campaign, to do so in a way that was responsible, do so in a way that was in keeping with his commitment to protect our troops and to speak with commanders on the ground and at the Pentagon in order to make it happen.
Obviously we've got a long way to go in Iraq. And I think the President enumerated that a military drawdown is but one of many functions that have to continue to take place in order to have the, as I think the President said, the hard opportunity the Iraqis now have to take their country and govern and protect it effectively.
Obviously the President outlined a series of strategies, including renewed diplomatic efforts in the region in order to bring Iraq into sort of the community in the region, but also to ensure that there's continued political improvement with the election scheduled this year, and still some hard decisions that have to be made on things like an oil law.
[REPORTER]: Did he call any other ex-Presidents to tell them what was going on?
GIBBS: I don't believe he called any ex-Presidents. I know that members of the team -- of our national security team were reaching out to many of their counterparts.
[REPORTER]: Why did he call Bush and not Clinton or the senior Bush? What informed this --
