February 10, 2009

Obamas News Conference

Oh, my God.Barack Obama's first prime time news conference as president was an absolute mess.He didn't have a deer in the headlights look during his opening remarks. Why?HE DIDN'T LOOK DIRECTLY INTO THE CAMERA. I NEVER SAW HIM LOOK STRAIGHT AHEAD, NOT ONCE.I may have missed it, but he wasn't talking to the American people. He was giving us profile shots.I can't believe how he babbled on and on. His response to the first question must have been close to ten minutes. Historic!He did pick up speed as he got rolling, but it didn't seem like it because he kept repeating himself and going off on tangents. He was rambling.I'm sure Lefties are thrilled with Obama's delivery. Finally, an intelligent president. Finally, a president that doesn't butcher the English language. I thought he was rather Nixonian, with the dour expression, head down and eyes raised. Never looking into the camera, especially during his opening remarks, gave him a shifty sort of look. As I said, he was reminiscent of Nixon. President Bush was so much more relaxed in his press conferences. He could connect. Obama reminded me of Al Gore during the presidential debates in 2000.BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.At least half of the questions, Obama didn't really answer. He kept talking, talking, talking about the stimulus bill.
Question 1 - Associated PressQuestion 2 - ReutersQuestion 3- CBSQuestion 4 - NBCQuestion 5 - BloombergQuestion 6 - ABCQuestion 7 - CNNQuestion 8 - New York TimesQuestion 9 - FOXQuestion 10 - Washington PostQuestion 11 - Helen ThomasQuestion 12 - Huffington PostQuestion 13 - NPRThe Huffington Post?Good Lord!What? No one from Democratic Underground?Not exactly fair and balanced. When Obama said that Iran has done some things that have been "unhelpful," he lost me. I wouldn't classify calling for the annihilation of Israel as "unhelpful."When he said, "There's no such thing as a free lunch," I was thinking about all the welfare included in the so-called stimulus bill. Oh, yeah. There is such a thing as a free lunch. Obama said, "My bottom line is: Are we creating 4 million jobs?" Oops! That was a mistake. Earlier in the news conference, Obama said his usual slick line, creating or preserving jobs. The number always varies. Obama and this jobs thing really drives me nuts. He's so vague.I think Obama was nervous. He seemed very tense at the beginning of the news conference, but he loosened up when he hit the hour mark. He probably saw the finish line in sight. The line of the night had to be this:
"It is absolutely true that we can't depend on government alone to create jobs or economic growth," he said. "But at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back into life. It is only government that can break the vicious cycle where lost jobs lead to people spending less money which leads to even more layoffs." "Only government." That's Obama. Talk about a power grab. He ended with "Thank you, guys."Not ready for prime time.

No comments:

Post a Comment