Monday, February 09, 2009
Another note on the President's press conference
President Obama needs to shorten up his answers. The long discourse on anti-terrorism policy, Iraq, and Afghanistan in response to the question about showing the coffins containing returning war dead was rambling and not the least bit necessary.
MORE: Helen Thomas: "Do you know of any country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons?" Sigh. This is a useful question? President Obama deftly dodges the question by turning it into discussion of Russia policy. Then he actually calls on somebody from The Huffington Post, who wants to know whether President Obama will support a "truth and reconciliation commission" to go after Bush administration officials. "Nobody is above the law" but he is "more interested in moving forward than looking backward." Well, sure.
13 Comments:
By 
, at
Mon Feb 09, 09:08:00 PM:
President Obama may want to smack down all of that "truth and reconciliation" commission talk. Based on the tax troubles that came to light in the first 10 days his administration will be like shooting fish in a barrel.
By 
Purple Avenger, at
Mon Feb 09, 09:28:00 PM:
He's gotta dance with the ones that brought him at least a little, or they're gonna be at his throat soon.
By Stephen, at
Mon Feb 09, 10:03:00 PM:
BHO is already better at saying nothing than GWB was. However, he has a long way to go before he is as masterly as Bill Clinton. Now there's a guy who spoke intelligently about complicated issues. WJC made you think you were listening to some startlingly new insight and only later did you realize he didn't know what to do either.
By , at
Mon Feb 09, 10:15:00 PM:
He lost me after his desultory answer to the second question. But I was particularly troubled by one statement in his answer to that question about how we could have a lost decade like Japan experienced in the 1990s if Congress does not pass the spending bill.
His ignorance on history and economics is staggering.
By , at
Mon Feb 09, 10:21:00 PM:
Small minded demagogue. We're in trouble.
By JPMcT, at
Mon Feb 09, 11:27:00 PM:
Methinks Obama should have waited four to eight more years. He clearly is not up to the job.
George Bush is gone back to Texas...it's getting MORE than a little weary hearing Obama laying everything at his feet.
That's the sort of dialogue one expects from a partisan hack...not a national leader.
Told you so....
By , at
Tue Feb 10, 09:01:00 AM:
...how long has Helen Thomas been (brain) dead.......? Just askin'.
By Catchy Pseudonym, at
Tue Feb 10, 09:44:00 AM:
What I've heard about the lost decade in Japan is that it is eerily similar to what is going on here now.
And some think that in 2001 when there was a stimulus package in Japan along with the govt. finally getting tough with the banks, that combo helped created a very long sustained growth for Japan.
By , at
Tue Feb 10, 09:53:00 AM:
A "truth and reconciliation commission" will be a problem for Obama because it will have to go back to cover Clinton (pardons, Iraqi oil voucher money, Berger crimes, Vince Foster's murder, Jim McDougal's murder, etc) and that will drag in Obama's Secretary of State and, of course, set up Obama and his mob if there ever again is a Republican Congress.
By , at
Tue Feb 10, 11:10:00 AM:
The sole purpose of this spending boondoggle is to create a dependent Democrat constituency that will bury the Republican Party for a generation at least.
JLW III
By , at
Tue Feb 10, 01:09:00 PM:
President Obama should have elaborated on his response to the question from Helen Thomas regarding "so-called" terrorists in Pakistan. Refering to the Fatah Region of Pakistan without explaining he means FATA (the Federally Administered Tribal Areas) and not, in fact, Fatah is a recipe for confusion not only for the easily confused Thomas but anyone else not paying close attention.
I was waiting for the follow-up question about the Hamas Region which, thankfully, never came.
By , at
Wed Feb 11, 01:41:00 PM:
Obama is still an enigma to me. I suspect he's actually very clever, and has an agenda.
In the 1990s Japan propped up zombie banks, and doubled its public debt for spending on infrastructure, to little effect in what's now called Japan's lost decade. Sound familiar?
So -- during his press conference -- when Obama made his comment on the lost decade in Japan ... he completely mischaracterized it. I'm sure that he knows a lot about the topic, because it would naturally come up in the course of internal discussions with the likes of Summers and Guethner. In fact, I'd bet that what got discussed is how much Obama's plans mirror what Japan did.
So when Obama go it wrong ... did he misspeak ... or was it a clever but misleading rhetorical device ... and planned for because they expected that "Japan's lost decade" would come ? I think the latter. Obama's a weasel, if I'm right.
Link
By , at
Wed Feb 11, 03:35:00 PM:
So when Obama go it wrong ... did he misspeak ... or was it a clever but misleading rhetorical device ... and planned for because they expected that "Japan's lost decade" would come?
Are you suggesting here that Obama wants to spend $800 billion, in full knowledge it'll lead to ten years of economic stagnation?
