In this Washington Post interview, SEIU President Andy Stern talks about Wal-Mart, Obama's many strengths and changing the status quo with Steve Pearlstein, the 2008 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Commentary.

Highlights from the discussion.....Andy Stern:

On Wal-Mart's "Terrible" Moral Leadership

"Wal-Mart, as the largest employer in America, has taken a terrible role as being a moral center. Henry Ford had the understanding that people needed money to buy the car. Wal-Mart's philosophy seems to be if the five Walton family members can make money, we don't have to worry about people buying the car. They are the essence of 25 years of failed economic theory."

"[...] Obama is clear on what he wants to accomplish, and he makes a plan...as I like to say, he works back from victory, rather than from the present forward. And once he's made his plan, he works the plan [without distraction].

"I think Obama has incredible personal skills. I've never seen a better personal organizer...you spend a day watching him on a campaign trail, but more importantly for our members, they got to watch him as a community organizer. This is a person with incredible integrity, he's a good listener and he's smarter than everyone else in the room but doesn't act that way."

"Both labor and business are very stuck in the 20th century. Both do not realize we're living through the third economic revolution in history, and it's far from over. In both cases, people are managing what is and not dreaming about what can be."

On Leading Others to Change the Status Quo

"When you're walking down a road and you know where it ends and you're not happy, you have to go in a different direction.

"We've seen in the auto industry, the pharmaceutical industry and now in investment houses, that challenging orthodoxy sometimes is enormously important--because the consequences of not doing so are even more devastating."