Through most of his inaugural primetime press conference, Barack Obama seemed like he was channeling a particularly loquacious combination of Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, and the ghost of Hubert Humphrey. The president's response to the first question from the Associated Press about the risks of sounding too apocalyptic about the economy ran (or, to be more accurate, crawled) for nearly 1,200 words--and ended with Obama saying "Okay" with an implicit question mark as if he were requesting permission to keep on talking. A national poll from the Pew Research Center released Monday afternoon found that 92 percent of Americans described Obama as a "good communicator." There is a suspicion that those astronomic numbers had dipped by the time that Obama exited from the East Room of the White House at 9 p.m. on the dot.In Obama's defense, the press conference was the first extended glimpse that many Americans had of their new president since the Inaugural Address. No one can deny the complexity of the economic challenges facing the nation--and President Obama is uniquely equipped to play Explainer in Chief. But Obama radiated the sense of a leader who has digested too many economic briefings and memorized too many talking points in preparation for his primetime rendezvous with the public. He clearly came out in an over-caffeinated mood ready to do battle with his Republican congressional foes, whom he had already vanquished-and, as a result, he over-reacted to last week's Fox News commentary instead of focusing on the exact shape of the stimulus. What shone through the entire press conference is how irked the president is with laissez-faire conservatives who believe, even now, "that the government has no business interfering in the marketplace" and that "FDR was wrong to intervene back in the New Deal." (Presumably Amity Shlaes, the Roosevelt-ripping author, should not plan on any immediate Oval Office invitations).
It is inevitable that the Obama press conference will be reviewed as political theater, since it was light on ... well ... that amorphous thing called news. The president's strongest answer was in response to the evening's fluffiest question, about Alex Rodriguez's confession that he had taken steroids. After an honest baseball fan's lament ("it tarnishes an entire era"), Obama jumped to a larger point that transcends sports--the lesson in A-Rod's downfall for the young: "There are no shortcuts; that when you try to take shortcuts you may end up tarnishing your whole career." Obama also took advantage of the presidential prerogative to duck when he was asked a tricky question about ending the ban on media coverage of the flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover Air Force Base. "We are in the process of reviewing those policies in conversations with the Defense Department," Obama said without revealing his hand. "So I don't want to give you an answer now, before I've evaluated that review and understand all the implications involved."
I'm still looking for the elusive liberal blog who defends this billion dollar Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwich as "stimulus". The best I can find is a lib who likes it because conservatives hate it.
If you know if one please let me know.
2 comments:
Many people are defending Obama. Many people continue to vilify the republicans (check out Daily Kos). By the way, who are the republicans? And who cares? We get it democrats. You won. Republicans are irrelevant. I think people will soon tire of democrats who continue to focus on republicans.
But I haven't seen a single defense of the stimulus -- anywhere. That's because it's a sham, it's shit, and everybody knows it, including Obama himself. Already, half of the rhetoric coming out of the White House nowadays is devoted to lowering expectations.
If we lose a million more jobs in the coming year, their planned defense will be that we would have lost 6 million without the stimulus.
But Obama should take a page from Ronald Reagan on this. If not in policy at least in communication skills. We were a better country when the president was reminding us that Americans should, could, and would resolve the problems of the day. All we have been getting from Obama is that we are deep in the crapper, we are only going to get deeper in the crapper, and the only way to get out of the crapper someday is by shovelling more crap onto the people; democrats holding the shovel.
It's going to be a long four years. Not as much for me as for people on the lower end of the ecomomic scale who have invested all their hope in Obama's promise to outlaw the coming recession.
excellent analysis
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