Posted on 02/11/2009 7:13:13 AM PST by rellimpank
President Barack Obama's first presidential news conference was performed feebly by the once-ferocious White House press corps and shrewdly -- if deceptively -- by the president. In the six years I did communications on former President Ronald Reagan's White House staff, I don't recall a single news conference in which there were no follow-up questions, no challenges to anything the president had said recently, no assertions of fact that the president was challenged to deal with. In fact, I don't remember former President Bill Clinton, either, ever getting a full 45-minute prime-time news conference pass.
Yet Monday night, all the questions but one were of the "please, sir, could you tell us how you plan to deal with x?" variety. Only Major Garrett of Fox News raised even a slightly embarrassing question: What was Vice President Joe Biden referring to when he said the administration had a 30 percent chance of failing at some initiative? And I must confess that if I had been the vice president, I would not have been happy with the president's answer, which was, in essence: I don't know what Biden was talking about, but that sounds like him.
It can't be good that the president is making his vice president the public butt of his snickering after only three weeks in office.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
My disgust for the press is growing exponentially.
I agree they always fall apart, but often not in time to make a difference.
Take FDR for example. He managed to successfully put the blame for his troubles on the previous President, no just for his term of office, but for generations beyond.
Roosevelt, was the only President to preside over years of 15% unemployment, unconstitutionally try to stack the Supreme Court and in one of the biggest denial of civil rights ever, incarcerate in concentration camps thousands of law abiding American citizens. Any one of these would have brought down other Presidents. Yet we built a memorial this this charlatan.
More recently, in Michigan, governor has managed to raise taxes, user fees, and create a horrid business environment. The Michigan economy has been in the dumpster her entire time in office and this once proud state is a laughing stock for a nation soon to find itself in very similar circumstance. Despite her gross incompetence, Jenny has been able to win re-election and successfully blame all of her trouble on her predecessor and President Bush.
The truth will come out - but will it be soon enough?
Agreed. At one point, he called a reporter's name, followed by "where is she". Tells me he had a list to follow.
Or, “why did you take control of the Census?”
When the press inevitably starts to ask the tough questions, I can’t wait for that empty suit to get angry! Wait’ll we see how they treat him then.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.