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Our Clever President
Real Clear Poitics ^ | 11 feb 09 | Tony Blankley

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: journalism; media; obama; obamatruthfile; porkulus; stimulus
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1 posted on 02/11/2009 7:13:14 AM PST by rellimpank
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To: rellimpank

My dream come true would be to have a press conference full of Freepers asking O the tough questions. Oh, that would be awesome!


2 posted on 02/11/2009 7:16:19 AM PST by Wonderama Mama (Socialism is great until you run out of someone elses money - Margaret Thatcher)
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To: rellimpank

[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.]

Zero has zero class. NONE! Remember how President Bush was loyal to a fault?


3 posted on 02/11/2009 7:16:21 AM PST by KansasGirl
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To: rellimpank

“sPIFFY”


4 posted on 02/11/2009 7:16:44 AM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: Wonderama Mama
My dream come true would be to have a press conference full of Freepers asking O the tough questions. Oh, that would be awesome!

Oh yeah, that would be fun. Can I throw stuff?

5 posted on 02/11/2009 7:22:16 AM PST by MarineBrat (The New York Times is a Communist Kamikaze.)
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To: Doogle

Notice also how the press politely waited to be called upon as Zero went down his list of the chosen? Where was the hungry journalist trying to jam through his important question? “Mister President! Mister President!”

Then for the press to switch the subject away from Porkulus and on to foreign affairs and steroids in baseball ... how about holding his feet to the fire, people? And the press corps seating arrangements!

I can only pray that some of these media whores will get offended enough to finally ask a tough question or two, before the last newspaper folds and America is dismantled.


6 posted on 02/11/2009 7:24:32 AM PST by DNME ("When small men cast long shadows, the sun is about to set.")
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To: rellimpank
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

There was also a question by She Who Must No Be Named Lest Someone Post Her Picture And Frighten Children And Animals which tried to trick Obama into publicly admitting that Israel has a nuclear arsenal.

7 posted on 02/11/2009 7:24:47 AM PST by KarlInOhio (On 9/11 Israel mourned with us while the Palestinians danced in the streets. Who should we support?)
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To: rellimpank
The press conference was a joke. Could there have been any more softer questions? No one challenged anything he said! What a disgrace our "press" has become. Bush was hammered with hardball questions for 8 years and now this? Even Helen Thomas was gushing during her softball question.

What a shame. These people should be embarassed.

And a question from Huffington Post??? Are you kidding me?

8 posted on 02/11/2009 7:24:47 AM PST by softwarecreator (Wow, free food, free gas and no more mortgage payments after January 2009, thanks Obama!!)
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To: rellimpank

Where are the Mencken’s? Reporters today seem to have no concept of how their salaries are paid; The exception are syndicated columnists and small town reporters.
One of the many reasons that the news business is floundering is that the reporters have no concept of what it is to run a business.
They are paid because they are supposed to provide a service. They are supposed to know what the market is for their product. They have alienated the very people who pay the revenue for their product through advertising and subscriptions. They cannot continue to look at the “suits” as the bad guys. They resent the “suits” as the people who say “NO”. Yes, it is frustrating, but reporters seem like adolescents who resent that Dad has taken away the car keys. Of course, reporters these days do seem to not be much older than adolescents.


9 posted on 02/11/2009 7:25:28 AM PST by madinmadtown (BO stinks..)
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To: Doogle

It’s gonna fall apart. These charades always do.


10 posted on 02/11/2009 7:25:46 AM PST by johnnycap
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To: DNME

I think they must have typed up a bunch of questions, placed them in a hat and had the reporters draw their questions beforehand.


11 posted on 02/11/2009 7:28:51 AM PST by Grumpybutt
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To: Wonderama Mama
My dream come true would be to have a press conference full of Freepers asking O the tough questions. Oh, that would be awesome!
He'd be stuttering and stammering like Porky Pig.
12 posted on 02/11/2009 7:37:14 AM PST by jmcenanly
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To: madinmadtown

‘A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.’

H.L.Menken


13 posted on 02/11/2009 7:39:45 AM PST by Leg Olam (my gurlfrnd syas my tyipgns as goood as my sex)
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To: rellimpank
Along with a fair amount of blarney, Joe Biden also makes more honest and candid observations in an afternoon than many politicians make in a lifetime. One comes away from a conversation with Biden with at least one truthful nugget. The same cannot be said for President Obama.

Tell it, Tony!

14 posted on 02/11/2009 7:41:04 AM PST by Albion Wilde ("Praise and worship" is my alternate lifestyle.)
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To: KarlInOhio

Rules!

No picture?

LOL!

/sarcasm>


15 posted on 02/11/2009 7:41:16 AM PST by Nonperson (Live Free or Die!)
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To: rellimpank

I’m just surprised no one in the press broke down, cried and begged for a new kitchen.


16 posted on 02/11/2009 7:42:18 AM PST by Neverforget01
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To: Wonderama Mama

I understand Hannity is going to get a beer bust session with the dOpey-One. He is opening a question submission request form on his web site, I have not found it yet. So, a few suggestion:

Prove you are a natural born citizen of the United State and eligible to be President. Open your birth records and end the speculation.

Open your records at Harvard, Columbia and the other schools you have attended.

Where do you find agreement with Iran, the destruction of Israel?

In light of the above questions, I don’t think the suds will flow.


17 posted on 02/11/2009 7:42:53 AM PST by depressed in 06 (I'm becoming nostalgic for the incompetence of Carter.)
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To: KansasGirl

Zero has zero class. NONE!

%%%%

That part of his upbringing was sadly lacking.

The other day he shook hands with the Marine guarding the entrance of Marine One! There are many things that were missed in his lifetime of relationships with people who do not like or respect our country.

We must never forget that the reason the people of the left do not like the Flag is because it is a symbol of what is Good about America - ideals that socialists do not share.


18 posted on 02/11/2009 7:53:49 AM PST by maica (Barack Obama is a Communist Party Project.)
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To: rellimpank

The press corp looked to me like a bunch of nervous college freshman asking a Professor a question that they knew was beneath him to answer.

It’s a strange day in America. Simply put, President Obama is an inormously talented man with precious few accomplishments at this date. President Bush was/is apparently an ordinary man with at least one exceptional accomplishment. We’ll see how it plays out.....


19 posted on 02/11/2009 7:59:09 AM PST by Mustangman (The GOP)
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To: rellimpank
Why is it that NO reporter EVER asked:

"Mr. Obama, why are you fighting the release of your birth certificate so vigorously?

" Not one!

20 posted on 02/11/2009 7:59:40 AM PST by Beckwith (A "natural Born" citizen)
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