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Specter Discusses Career, Offers The President Advice

(CBS) -- Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), just days out of office after a 30-year career in the US Senate, has some direct advice for the White House: the iconic senator thinks the president should be a better listener.

"I would tell him to listen more," Specter said in an interview with Larry Kane for the Comcast Network.  "I would tell him that he has to put aside the drama and his great carriage of the 2008 election where he practically mesmerized America, and the governing is very different from campaigning."

For Arlen Specter, Barack Obama's big challenge is to seek real results.  That means reasonable compromise with the Republicans.

"I think he has to seek common ground and find compromises. We find that the Tea Party, and many in the Republican right, have run on a platform of no compromise.  Well, politics is the art of the possible and it requires compromise."

Specter also says the up-or-down vote coming on the health care bill is a charade -- just a show that will have little impact on the bill.

And Specter says that earmarks are great, especially when they change people's lives.

"You talk about an earmark for deepening the channel of the Delaware River from 40 to 45 feet to bring thousands of jobs to Philadelphia. You talk about an earmark for acres to hold onto 1,200 jobs. You talk about an earmark for the National Institutes of Health."

Reported by Larry Kane, KYW Newsradio 1060.

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