Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer on the “Today” show that he doesn’t expect the mortgage plan to cost the full $700 billion right away, and all the money won’t be lost.
“Does that mean that I can do everything that I've called for in this campaign right away?” Obama said. “Probably not. I think we're going to have to phase it in. And a lot of it's going to depend on what our tax revenues look like.” 
Obama was interviewed by Lauer on Monday in Green Bay, Wis.
The Democrat attacked Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for initially opposing the federal government’s intervention to save insurance giant AIG.
“I think what has been clear during this entire past 10 days is John McCain has not had clarity and a grasp on the situation,” Obama.
But Lauer pointed out that Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), had initially said the same thing – on “Today,” no less.
“I think that in that situation, I think Joe should have waited, as well,” Obama said.
It’s very rare for one ticket mate to publicly second-guess the other. But on the “CBS Evening News” on Monday, Biden had chastised his own campaign for a TV ad portraying McCain as a computer illiterate. Biden backed off his criticism of the ad in a statement the campaign released three hours later.
Obama, McCain's Democratic rival, launched the ad earlier this month, part of an aggressive push to slow McCain's rise in the polls after he chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate. It included unflattering footage of Sen. McCain at a hearing in the early '80s, wearing giant glasses and an out-of-style suit, interspersed with shots of a disco ball, a clunky phone, an outdated computer and a Rubik's Cube.
"He admits he still doesn't know how to use a computer, can't send an e-mail, still doesn't understand the economy, and favors $200 billion in new tax cuts for corporations, but almost nothing for the middle class," the ad says.
Asked about the negative tone of the campaign, and this ad in particular, during an interview broadcast Monday by the "CBS Evening News," Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, said he disapproved of it.
I thought that was terrible, by the way," Biden said.
