Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Reaction To The Obama Press Conference

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If Obama's intent was to rally the nation, he failed miserably. He looked unsure and stammered through most answers in a way some candidates do when trying to extend their time to the full two minutes in a debate or like a kid trying to make the full five minutes required for an oral book report. He looked, in a word: uncomfortable.

Walter Shapiro--no conservative, he--noticed as well:

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.
Mr. Shapiro, I suggest you seek cover and duck for you have broken the liberal law of saying that Obama just isn't that great of a communicator. Libs think of him as their Reagan while the rest of us chuckle every time we hear that.

Obama didn't get his point across--or if he did, it was mixed in with so much mumbo-jumbo as to be indistinguishable to the average viewer. What was needed was brevity and what was delivered was decidedly long-winded, non-committal and flat.

If anything good comes out of this stimulus nonsense, it's the fact that America has seen the Barack Obama that we on the right saw a year ago--a man who was short on executive experience and was not close to what was needed in crucial times.

Tough times call for great men and women, people who can rally an entire nation to the cause through words and ideas instead we got a one-hour campaign press conference and a litany of regurgitated, Rahm Emanuel talking points and some throw-away lines on the A-Rod scandal thanks to a question that was embarrassing in the format.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Didn't Obama ask for this job - for over 2 years? To publicly blame/shame his predecessor struck me as juvenile, immature, and irresponsible. It is now his responsibility to lead - to look forward. There's plenty of blame to spread around, but it won't fix anything. It must be hard to lead when you're kicking the last guy as he goes out the door. I just wasn't impressed or swayed. And how many "bottom lines" does he have? I think I heard 5 during the press conference. Obama is in love with the sound of his own voice, yet the longer he talks, the more dissonant he sounds.

I listened to it on the radio while I tried to get my house ready to sell. Ha! You could hear his excitement when he happened to remember a zinger talking point to insert.

My bottom line: We are being railroaded into passage of this boondoggle. Why not take the time and effort to pass something truly stimulative and that provides immediate relief - like tax cuts. His agenda projects will take years to have any impact and they just grow the government. Are we really this stupid? Please tell me, "No."

The Ghost said...

Shapiro is getting hammered in the comments ... they are all so proud of the One and how smart he is ...

Sissy Willis said...

"If anything good comes out of this stimulus nonsense, it's the fact that America has seen the Barack Obama that we on the right saw a year ago--a man who was short on executive experience and was not close to what was needed in crucial times."

Exactly right and music to my ears. :-)

Anonymous said...

Obama is making all of the rookie leader mistakes:

1) When challenged, blame your predecessor or your subordinates.

2) Confuse your job as leader with your job interview (or election campaign).

3) Focus on doom and gloom as the reason why your actions should not be questioned.

4) Patronize your critics, thinking that will win them over to your side.

5) Avoid listening to people who bring up the risks to your plan.

It's really too bad that Obama is using our country as an undergraduate course in leadership. We are in for a pretty rough ride.

Bluegrass Pundit said...

Why does President Obama use a 'secret press list' when taking questions at a press conference? Is he afraid of the questions he might be asked? Is this an attempt to punish news organizations that are not obsequious enough? Perhaps, both reasons are in play. No other President has used a screened list at press conferences to my knowledge. There were allegations that the Obama campaign blacklisted certain news organizations during the election. Presidential Candidate Obama kicked several longtime corespondents off his campaign plane in a move to reward news outlets he liked and punish those he did not like. Now, he is using a screened list of reporters and he has moved the "lunatic left' to the front row for press conferences. This is why he is never asked any tough questions. Reporters are afraid of the consequences. This answers the question of why no major reporter ever asked Barack Obama about his failure to produce a 'vault copy' of his birth certificate or release his college records.

Unknown said...

Dear Intellectual Redneck,

As a member of the "lunatic left" as you like to call it, I'd like to set the record straight on a few points you made:

1. All presidents since Truman have used a selected "list" when engaged in major press conferences. I work in Politics in NYC, and I can tell you that most major politicians (including our Mayor) use a selected list. This list is developed in cooperation with members of the press---to ensure that various parties in the press are properly represented.

2. Don't believe all "allegations" that you hear and/or read. Obama was also accused of being Muslim. . .an allegation that is untrue and ultimately unimportant. If he were Muslim, does it matter? Probably to you, who more than likely equates Muslim with terrorist. Remember Timothy McVeigh? He was Baptist. Are all Baptists terrorists? No.

3. Not all of the questions came from the "front row"---more than half did not.

4.Birth Certificate: The only reason why Obama would need this would be to prove his age. I think it's obvious that he is over the age of 35, right? (in case you don't know, that's the age one must be in order to run for President) I suppose you would also need to see his Birth Certificate to prove that he is a citizen. Do we really need to resort to that "allegation"?

5. College Records: Transcripts are not required for the job of President. It's a good thing, because our previous Commander in Chief would have failed miserably, particularly in the areas of English and Grammar.

If you have any more questions, let the world know. But why don't you put your time to good use and actually reach out a helping hand to your fellow citizens during this time of crisis.

Thank you,

a former midwesterner and current resident of NYC

-Also a homosexual, as I can tell by your comments that you probably consider my "kind" to be less than human.