Obama: Spat with Arizona governor not a big deal

President Barack Obama greets Arizona Governor Jan Brewer after stepping off Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, January 12, 2011.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A tense airport exchange with Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, in which she wagged her finger in his face, was blown out of proportion, President Barack Obama said in an ABC News interview on Thursday.

"I think it's always good publicity for a Republican if they're in an argument with me. ... But this was really not a big deal," Obama said. "Last time we met, she wasn't fully satisfied. But, you know, I think this is a classic example of things getting blown out of proportion."

The testy exchange with Brewer on Wednesday distracted from the economic message Obama has sought to emphasize during a three-day campaign-style tour that followed his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night.

Obama, who spent much of last year locked in battles with Republicans in the U.S. Congress, took a combative tone in the address as he pressed Republicans to work with him to fix the sluggish economy.

The president has also differed sharply with Brewer over immigration policy.

The Justice Department has challenged a controversial bill Brewer signed in 2010 cracking down on illegal immigrants in Arizona that called for police to check the immigration status of anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.

Obama has referred to the Arizona immigration law as "misguided." Critics have said the measure is a mandate for racial profiling, but its supporters believe tougher measures are needed to prevent non-citizens from taking U.S. jobs in a tough economic climate.

But Obama sought to play down any tension during his brief meeting with Brewer at the Phoenix airport.

"She wanted to give me a letter, asking for a meeting. And I said, 'We'd be happy to meet,'" Obama told ABC.

Brewer and Obama spoke when she met him on the airport tarmac to welcome him to her state.

During their chat, Obama told Brewer he disagreed with an account she had given of a meeting they had at the White House two years ago. At one point during the conversation, she pointed a finger at the president.

"Let me say that I respect the office of president, and when I went to meet him at the tarmac, I went with a happy heart," Brewer said on Thursday on CNN.

"He turned that conversation immediately to my book 'Scorpions for Breakfast' and was immediately somewhat distraught, disappointed about the way that he was portrayed in that book," she said.

The book, released in November, ranked 276,665th in sales on Amazon.com before the airport showdown, but by Thursday it had shot to No. 21 on the Best Sellers in Books category and No. 2 on the site's Movers and Shakers, the Arizona Republic newspaper reported.

Asked whether she created the spat with Obama to sell more copies of her book, Brewer told CNN: "Absolutely not, that's absolutely ridiculous."

Immediately after meeting with Obama at the White House in 2010, Brewer described the exchange as "cordial" but she later wrote in the book that she felt he had lectured her.

(Additional Reporting By Caren Bohan and Tim Gaynor; Editing by Peter Cooney)