Obama Press Conference Review

[Sinatra]

Some observations...

One, Obama remains uncomfortable - not quite shrill, but clearly out of his comfort zone regarding the mounting opposition to this stimulus package. His answers repeatedly rambled as he attempted to explain positions he is clearly unsure of himself.

Two, Obama's fall-back position is to blame Republicans, despite the fact the Democrats are going on their third year of controlling Congress. This worked well during the campaign when Bush was still President, but is now falling on increasingly deaf ears. There were a few times he slipped into outright whine mode.

Third, His repeated defense of the pork contained within this stimulus bill was Obama at his weakest. As he once said, if you put lipstick on a pig...

Lastly, the questions were soft - Obama clearly went of a list of pre-approved reporters, who meekly posed simple questions that still left Obama grasping for a cogent thought at times. For a press conference that was highly scripted, Obama failed to close the deal - far from it, and gave a performance that while pleasing to his loyal base of supporters, will foster increasing doubts among the population of Americans who favor neither party affiliation.

This President best step up his game...

 

[Arthur]

Complete conjecture.

 

[42Presidents]

I agree with your post. More and more lately, he appears frustrated and agitated whenever a reporter asks a tough question. Did he think this job was going to be a walk in the park? As Bush used to say, "its hard work!"

 

[Sinatra]

Yes indeed Mr. Obama - Beware Pelosi!

William McGurn Says Nancy Pelosi's Stimulus Package Is a Cautionary Tale of Audacity for Barack Obama - WSJ.com

 

[Sinatra]

I agree with your post. More and more lately, he appears frustrated and agitated whenever a reporter asks a tough question. Did he think this job was going to be a walk in the park? As Bush used to say, "its hard work!"

Is that you in the pic soldier?

If so, thank for your service - and your comments.

 

[del]

Complete conjecture.

what?

 

[Xenophon]

He did say 'last 8 years' quite often.

 

[Sinatra]

He did say 'last 8 years' quite often.

Exactly - and that is an utter sign of weakness, not to mention not quite accurate, as his own party is heading into its 3rd year of dominating both the House and Senate.

Obama points a finger at the "doubling national debt" during the Bush years, and yet, he will be doing that and more within a month of taking office - what took Bush eight years will take Obama one month.

The media should have rightfully questioned him on this, but no, such a question was not to come from the pre-determined short list of reporter questions.

All in all, a middling at best initial press conference performance.

 

[oreo]

I couldn't believe that some of these reporters strayed off topic--asking ridiculous questions regarding some baseball player on sterioids, 2 or 3 Iraq/Afganistan questions, 1 Iran question, & then Patrick Leah wanting to investigage war crimes on President Bush.

I think Obama should have immediately side-lined those questions, & gone to a different reporter to discuss ONLY this stimulus bill. That's what Americans wanted to hear about. This was absolutely no time to stray off-topic.

 

[del]

I couldn't believe that some of these reporters strayed off topic--asking ridiculous questions regarding some baseball player on sterioids, 2 or 3 Iraq/Afganistan questions, 1 Iran question, & then Patrick Leah wanting to investigage war crimes on President Bush.

I think Obama should have immediately side-lined those questions, & gone to a different reporter to discuss ONLY this stimulus bill. That's what Americans wanted to hear about.

WHO IN THE HECK WERE THOSE REPORTERS? How stupid!

what makes it even more ridiculous is that they had a day to come up with questions as they were notified in advance that obama would call on them and this dreck was the best they could do.

"Some journalists are miffed that Obama decides the day before news conferences whom he is going to call on -- the fortunate ones are notified in advance -- reducing the other reporters to the role of mere extras. Past presidents have generally worked their way around the room, starting with the wire services, networks and major newspapers."

Howard Kurtz - Obama Works the Press - washingtonpost.com

 

[oreo]

He did say 'last 8 years' quite often.

Exactly - and that is an utter sign of weakness, not to mention not quite accurate, as his own party is heading into its 3rd year of dominating both the House and Senate.

Obama points a finger at the "doubling national debt" during the Bush years, and yet, he will be doing that and more within a month of taking office - what took Bush eight years will take Obama one month.

The media should have rightfully questioned him on this, but no, such a question was not to come from the pre-determined short list of reporter questions.

All in all, a middling at best initial press conference performance.

DITTO--2 wrongs don't make a right! Most of us, especially conservatives were really ticked at P. Bush over the bank bail-outs, AIG, Bear Stearns, etc. etc.

In fact I blame both parties for this economic mess.

 

[oreo]

I couldn't believe that some of these reporters strayed off topic--asking ridiculous questions regarding some baseball player on sterioids, 2 or 3 Iraq/Afganistan questions, 1 Iran question, & then Patrick Leah wanting to investigage war crimes on President Bush.

I think Obama should have immediately side-lined those questions, & gone to a different reporter to discuss ONLY this stimulus bill. That's what Americans wanted to hear about.

WHO IN THE HECK WERE THOSE REPORTERS? How stupid!

what makes it even more ridiculous is that they had a day to come up with questions as they were notified in advance that obama would call on them and this dreck was the best they could do.

"Some journalists are miffed that Obama decides the day before news conferences whom he is going to call on -- the fortunate ones are notified in advance -- reducing the other reporters to the role of mere extras. Past presidents have generally worked their way around the room, starting with the wire services, networks and major newspapers."

Howard Kurtz - Obama Works the Press - washingtonpost.com

No kidding: Here my husband was, who doesn't pay as much attention to politics as I do even got frustrated. He looked at me, stood up from the couch, threw his hands up in the air said: You've got to be kidding right--over those absolutely nothing to do with the stimulus package. The steriod's on the baseball player sent him out of the room.

Obama could have stopped those kind of questions immediately. Just by stating: This is about the stimulus bill only, another day I'll answer your other "frivilous" questions. I heard they had all weekend to come up with those questions. They certainly knew there would be a press conference last Friday.

 

[del]

I couldn't believe that some of these reporters strayed off topic--asking ridiculous questions regarding some baseball player on sterioids, 2 or 3 Iraq/Afganistan questions, 1 Iran question, & then Patrick Leah wanting to investigage war crimes on President Bush.

I think Obama should have immediately side-lined those questions, & gone to a different reporter to discuss ONLY this stimulus bill. That's what Americans wanted to hear about.

WHO IN THE HECK WERE THOSE REPORTERS? How stupid!

what makes it even more ridiculous is that they had a day to come up with questions as they were notified in advance that obama would call on them and this dreck was the best they could do.

"Some journalists are miffed that Obama decides the day before news conferences whom he is going to call on -- the fortunate ones are notified in advance -- reducing the other reporters to the role of mere extras. Past presidents have generally worked their way around the room, starting with the wire services, networks and major newspapers."

Howard Kurtz - Obama Works the Press - washingtonpost.com

No kidding: Here my husband was, who doesn't pay as much attention to politics as I do even got frustrated. He looked at me, stood up from the couch, threw his hands up in the air said: You've got to be kidding right--over those absolutely nothing to do with the stimulus package. The steriod's on the baseball player sent him out of the room.

me too

 

[Sinatra]

I couldn't believe that some of these reporters strayed off topic--asking ridiculous questions regarding some baseball player on sterioids, 2 or 3 Iraq/Afganistan questions, 1 Iran question, & then Patrick Leah wanting to investigage war crimes on President Bush.

I think Obama should have immediately side-lined those questions, & gone to a different reporter to discuss ONLY this stimulus bill. That's what Americans wanted to hear about.

WHO IN THE HECK WERE THOSE REPORTERS? How stupid!

what makes it even more ridiculous is that they had a day to come up with questions as they were notified in advance that obama would call on them and this dreck was the best they could do.

"Some journalists are miffed that Obama decides the day before news conferences whom he is going to call on -- the fortunate ones are notified in advance -- reducing the other reporters to the role of mere extras. Past presidents have generally worked their way around the room, starting with the wire services, networks and major newspapers."

Howard Kurtz - Obama Works the Press - washingtonpost.com

No kidding: Here my husband was, who doesn't pay as much attention to politics as I do even got frustrated. He looked at me, stood up from the couch, threw his hands up in the air said: You've got to be kidding right--over those absolutely nothing to do with the stimulus package. The steriod's on the baseball player sent him out of the room.

Agreed - while Obama's performance was underwhelming, those pre-selected reporters were deplorable.

And the fact Obama has to control the press room environment so much is pointed proof of his uncertainty in his own abilities.

And no follow up questions allowed?

I mean c'mon - this really has to stop.

For God's sake the man is President. The press needs to do its damn job.

 

[del]

what makes it even more ridiculous is that they had a day to come up with questions as they were notified in advance that obama would call on them and this dreck was the best they could do.

"Some journalists are miffed that Obama decides the day before news conferences whom he is going to call on -- the fortunate ones are notified in advance -- reducing the other reporters to the role of mere extras. Past presidents have generally worked their way around the room, starting with the wire services, networks and major newspapers."

Howard Kurtz - Obama Works the Press - washingtonpost.com

No kidding: Here my husband was, who doesn't pay as much attention to politics as I do even got frustrated. He looked at me, stood up from the couch, threw his hands up in the air said: You've got to be kidding right--over those absolutely nothing to do with the stimulus package. The steriod's on the baseball player sent him out of the room.

Agreed - while Obama's performance was underwhelming, those pre-selected reporters were deplorable.

And the fact Obama has to control the press room environment so much is pointed proof of his uncertainty in his own abilities.

And no follow up questions allowed?

I mean c'mon - this really has to stop.

For God's sake the man is President. The press needs to do its damn job.

i didn't vote for him, but for my kids' sake and the country, i'd like to see him do well. this didn't leave me all warm and fuzzy; no tingle up my leg either.

and the press should be ashamed of themselves as a group, IMO.

 

[DiveCon]

what makes it even more ridiculous is that they had a day to come up with questions as they were notified in advance that obama would call on them and this dreck was the best they could do.

"Some journalists are miffed that Obama decides the day before news conferences whom he is going to call on -- the fortunate ones are notified in advance -- reducing the other reporters to the role of mere extras. Past presidents have generally worked their way around the room, starting with the wire services, networks and major newspapers."

Howard Kurtz - Obama Works the Press - washingtonpost.com

No kidding: Here my husband was, who doesn't pay as much attention to politics as I do even got frustrated. He looked at me, stood up from the couch, threw his hands up in the air said: You've got to be kidding right--over those absolutely nothing to do with the stimulus package. The steriod's on the baseball player sent him out of the room.

Agreed - while Obama's performance was underwhelming, those pre-selected reporters were deplorable.

And the fact Obama has to control the press room environment so much is pointed proof of his uncertainty in his own abilities.

And no follow up questions allowed?

I mean c'mon - this really has to stop.

For God's sake the man is President. The press needs to do its damn job.

and Bush was accused of controling too much
LOL

 

[oreo]

what makes it even more ridiculous is that they had a day to come up with questions as they were notified in advance that obama would call on them and this dreck was the best they could do.

"Some journalists are miffed that Obama decides the day before news conferences whom he is going to call on -- the fortunate ones are notified in advance -- reducing the other reporters to the role of mere extras. Past presidents have generally worked their way around the room, starting with the wire services, networks and major newspapers."

Howard Kurtz - Obama Works the Press - washingtonpost.com

No kidding: Here my husband was, who doesn't pay as much attention to politics as I do even got frustrated. He looked at me, stood up from the couch, threw his hands up in the air said: You've got to be kidding right--over those absolutely nothing to do with the stimulus package. The steriod's on the baseball player sent him out of the room.

Agreed - while Obama's performance was underwhelming, those pre-selected reporters were deplorable.

And the fact Obama has to control the press room environment so much is pointed proof of his uncertainty in his own abilities.

And no follow up questions allowed?

I mean c'mon - this really has to stop.

For God's sake the man is President. The press needs to do its damn job.

I believe that there were millions of Americans watching this press conferance that were just as frustrated as we were with those absolutely nothing to do with the stimulus bill. Imagine, how the person who just lost their job felt about those frivilous questions.

Obama blew it there. He could have taken charge of those questions, sidelined the ones that had nothing to do with this stimulus bill. Instead, he spent precious minutes answering them. In fact, it would be interesting to know exactly how much time he spent answering those questions. It certainly wasn't the place or time for that. BTW--his press secretary could have easily answered those questions, during his daily briefing.

 

[DiveCon]

No kidding: Here my husband was, who doesn't pay as much attention to politics as I do even got frustrated. He looked at me, stood up from the couch, threw his hands up in the air said: You've got to be kidding right--over those absolutely nothing to do with the stimulus package. The steriod's on the baseball player sent him out of the room.

Agreed - while Obama's performance was underwhelming, those pre-selected reporters were deplorable.

And the fact Obama has to control the press room environment so much is pointed proof of his uncertainty in his own abilities.

And no follow up questions allowed?

I mean c'mon - this really has to stop.

For God's sake the man is President. The press needs to do its damn job.

i didn't vote for him, but for my kids' sake and the country, i'd like to see him do well. this didn't leave me all warm and fuzzy; no tingle up my leg either.

and the press should be ashamed of themselves as a group, IMO.

well, you aren't Chrissy Mathews either
LOL

 

[DiveCon]

No kidding: Here my husband was, who doesn't pay as much attention to politics as I do even got frustrated. He looked at me, stood up from the couch, threw his hands up in the air said: You've got to be kidding right--over those absolutely nothing to do with the stimulus package. The steriod's on the baseball player sent him out of the room.

Agreed - while Obama's performance was underwhelming, those pre-selected reporters were deplorable.

And the fact Obama has to control the press room environment so much is pointed proof of his uncertainty in his own abilities.

And no follow up questions allowed?

I mean c'mon - this really has to stop.

For God's sake the man is President. The press needs to do its damn job.

I believe that there were millions of Americans watching this press conferance that were just as frustrated as we were with those absolutely nothing to do with the stimulus bill as we were. Imagine, how the person who just lost their job felt about those frivilous questions.

Obama blew it there. He could have taken charge of those questions, sidelined the ones that had nothing to do with this stimulus bill. Instead, he spent precious minutes answering them. In fact, it would be interesting to know exactly how much time he spent answering those questions. It certainly wasn't the place or time for that. BTW--his press secretary could have easily answered those questions, during his daily briefing.

i give him a pass on that, if he had done that, there would be some that bitched him out for "avoiding the questions"
so he answered, or tried to answer them

 

[Bern80]

The only thing that I thought could be construed as encouraging is his claim that the pork and earmarks have been cut out of the bill. The downside is that is open to a lot of interpretation. One person's pork is another's.....uh....well you get the idea.

As someone noted he does come off as frustrated. Despite his early claims of bi-partisanship, it seems he has taken a tone of 'we need this done now and my way' approach.