During these first 100 days, what has surprised you the most about this office? Enchanted you the most from serving in this office? Humbled you the most? And troubled you the most?And the President responds... as if... well, as if the 2 of them were engaging in pillow talk....
Enchanting... inane... and enchanting.
OBAMA: Now let me write this down.
OBAMA: I've got...
QUESTION: Surprised, troubled...
OBAMA: I've got -- what was the first one?
QUESTION: Surprised.
OBAMA: Surprised.
QUESTION: Troubled.
OBAMA: Troubled.
QUESTION: Enchanted.
OBAMA: Enchanted, nice.
QUESTION: And humbled.
OBAMA: And what was the last one, humbled?
QUESTION: Humbled. Thank you, sir.
OBAMA: All right. OK.
Now, if you want to be bored out of your skull, go to the link and read O's answer to the question.
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120 comments:
Looks like Fox made the right call. That wasn't so much a press conference as a media tongue bath.
Accountability journalism at its best.
They should have sent this guy to the Miss America pageant and Perez Hilton to the press conference.
Lately I've been depressed thinking that my grandchlidren will come of age in a bilingual welfare state. A nation where innovation and ambition have been replaced by a bland populus waiting for its share of the magic free government pie.
Then I hear the newspaper of record ask President Jesus a sissy question with an obvious answer (BO find BO most enchanting), and I realize I'm being too optomistic.
QUESTION: Stimulation package.
OBAMA: Stimulation, nice.
The NYT is just angling for a bailout. Wouldn't surprise me if they're bankrupt by year's end.
I know what surprises me: the idiot reporters who won't (or can't) ask questions about the economy.
Not so much 'enchanted' as 'ensorcelled!'
It's interesting that "Enchanted" makes him think of US service men and women. And given his answer, "Humbled" wasn't the word that did.
How does it feel to be so fucking wonderful, Mr President? How can you bear waking up in the morning and being so fucking hot and wonderful, Sir?
"Can I just skip the questions and kiss your feet, sir, please??"
It's not enough to take the One you love for granted
You must remind Him or He'll be inclined to say
"How do I know he loves me?
How do I know he's mine?"
""Can I just skip the questions and kiss your feet, sir, please??""
Screw that foot-kisser, Mr President! I, on behalf of the Washington Post Company, will suck your cock and swallow!
You already know that we of ABC News swallow, Mr President!
I would just like to say that the Boston Globe would like to immolate the woman from NPR and place her before you as a burnt offering thanking you for the most wonderful and perfect 100 days of our lives, Most Sacred President.
Actually, I'm feeling a lot more optimistic about the country's future now. After all, if a reporter can manage to ask a question while his mouth is full of Barack Obama's genitals, then can-do American innovation isn't dead yet.
I'm going to drunk dial America and ask how she could have done this to us! Or maybe call and hang up when America answers. I can't sleep. I can't eat. Arrgh! It's been 100 days and I still miss you so bad. What's this new guy have that I don't. Huh?
LOLOLOL
Imus opened his show with that NYT question
real audio.
``They've gotta shut the paper down.''
I was with 5-6 family & friends yesterday. We got into a fairly serious talk about the country.
Each of us are in our fifties, still working and wondering if people in our age group would ever again even think about investing in the stock market. All of us have stopped spending and buying stuff.
My point is the conservation was all about the economy, family finances and spending and the future but it seems the MSM only asked one stinking about the economy at last night's press conference.
The MSM is basically useless.
"The MSM is basically useless."
That's not fair! They're useful. Useful Idiots.
"Somewhat flakily?"
Man, that question had more flakes than a box of Ivory Snow.
"It's the economy, stupid."
There was a press conference last night?
Oh hum. Sorry I missed it. I was reading.
/sarcasm
"Looks like Fox made the right call. That wasn't so much a press conference as a media tongue bath."
It's kind of ironic, really, in that Fox is probably the network most likely to air a program involving a tongue bath.
This one, I guess, was just too graphic even for them.
Typo:
I meant to type "the media only asked one stinking QUESTION" during the press conference.
If you were on Twitter last night, you saw the reporters live blogging the press conference LOVED that question and answer.
HowardKurtzEasy to mock Zeleny's question (asking a prez what "enchanted" him?) but it produced the most interesting answer of the night.and
thenoteRT @HowardKurtz Obama is hitting this Q about surprised, enchanged, humbled out of the park. He's thinking out loud.and
tvnewserRT @BillHemmer: jeff zeleny ny times question might be most insightful of evening. w/ longest answer coming.Depressing.
AJ--
I think that you meant conversation not conservation.
Lately I've been depressed thinking that my grandchlidren will come of age in a bilingual welfare state. A nation where innovation and ambition have been replaced by a bland populus waiting for its share of the magic free government pie...
You mean like France? (bilingual French/English), except of course the French defend French, unlike the Americans
AllenS:
Doh! You are correct! I am full of errors today.
Did I hear someone mutter "Get a room!"
"Obama is hitting this Q about surprised, enchanged, humbled out of the park. He's thinking out loud"
O.M.G.!!!1 He's thinking out loud!!!11 Mr President, I can hear your thoughts!! We can all hear them inside our heads!! We shall open our minds to you, O Leader! Fill our empty minds with your enchanting thoughts!
"Did I hear someone mutter "Get a room!"Probably not -- liberals don't like any restrictions on their sex lives.
100 days down. 2820 to go!
Obama takes care to pre-select his audiences. His pr people have learned much from watching tv infomercials. If you pontificate before a rapt crowd of true believers, the sale is much easier to make.... My God, a paring knife that trims government waste while at the same time giving us universal health care. I wouldn't have believed it unless I saw it with my own eyes. But wait! There's more! A kinder, gentler way of questioning terror suspects that not only makes us safer but makes the terror suspects feel good about themselves and about us.....As the spielman makes these extravagant claims, the crowd, i.e. the press, nods enthusiastically and occasionally bursts into spontaneous applause. I'm not sure what the product is, but the spielman is very smooth and the crowd is doing their bit to help make the sale.
"100 days down. 2820 to go!"
2820 days until you start bitching and whining and being a generally intolerable little twat again... Oh wait, you never stopped bitching, whining or being an intolerable little twat in the first place. I wonder how many days your former girlfriend, the cankle princess, has left. Not 2820 I'd wager. Heh. No matter, she'll never forgive you for going gay for Obama.
"If you pontificate before a rapt crowd of true believers, the sale is much easier to make.... "
Well then he could hardly do better than an audience of MSM "journalists."
Now if Adam had only sung "Some Enchanted Evening" and dedicated it to the President he would never ended up in the bottom two.
It's a pretty safe bet that he doesn't mind being a bottom; it's just that he doesn't want to be in the bottom two.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Palladian, dearest, you are very sharp today*
*It fits with the theme...
2820 days until you start bitching and whining and being a generally intolerable little twat again... Oh wait, you never stopped bitching, whining or being an intolerable little twat in the first place. I wonder how many days your former girlfriend, the cankle princess, has left. Not 2820 I'd wager. Heh. No matter, she'll never forgive you for going gay for Obama..
LOL. You still don't get it. I still like that woman, and probably always will. She is Sec. of State. Not too shabby. How did it turn out for that shit for brains hillbilly from AK again that you loved so much?
"How did it turn out for that shit for brains hillbilly from AK again that you loved so much?"
I think he married the Secretary of State or is that a trick question?
... and as the throng jostled him, The One suddenly stopped, exclaiming, "Someone touched me." And when those who were near him denied that they had touched him, an Secret Service Agent spoke up: "Master, you can see that this crowd presses you, threatening to crush us, and yet you say `someone has touched me.' What do you mean?" Then The One said: "I asked who touched me, for I perceived that living energy had gone forth from me." As The One looked about him, his eyes fell upon a near-by woman, who, coming forward, knelt at his feet and said: "For years I have been afflicted with a scourging hemorrhage. I have suffered many things from many physicians; I have spent all my substance, but none could cure me. Then I heard of you, and I thought if I may but touch the hem of his garment, I shall certainly be made whole. And so I pressed forward with the crowd as it moved along until, standing near you, Master, I touched the border of your garment, and I was made whole; I know that I have been healed of my affliction. And now that I feel myself whole again, Master, I press upon you to tarry and answer just one question" The One said, "Sure. Go ahead. Let's hear it." The woman, being a reporter for the paper of record said, "Master, if you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?"
The MSM surely believes Obama would be a hard wood tree.
"Obama takes care to pre-select his audiences. His pr people have learned much from watching tv infomercials. If you pontificate before a rapt crowd of true believers, the sale is much easier to make"
Well thats new! A politician would rather address his supporters and dodge the hard questions! Whatever next? Maybe Im new to this whole politics lark, but isnt this basically business as usual? Is Obama really doing anything new here?
Mr President, I can hear your thoughts!! We can all hear them inside our heads!!I love this, Palladian.
Minzo, so they dropped the "Change" then? And after Hope is gone, what will be left?
Erm I may have jumped the gun earlier...I thought this was an address to supporters with the media present as opposed to a proper media conference. Disregard my earlier submission!
How did it turn out for that shit for brains hillbilly from AK again that you loved so much?.
garage do you get acid reflux when you constantly stand up for the very junior senator who kicked your girl's ass from the office she so richly deserved?
Quayle, I have seen that with my own eyes. It wasn't so drastic in Cuba, but I remember people looking around to know when to stop clapping. They did measure your "clappily enthusiasm", and if it was not up to a ceratin level, you would definitely get called into the principal's or the Party secretary's office (if they weren't the same person) to "analyze" and "investigate" why.
The longer this press love fest goes, the harder it is going to be for someone to actually ask a tough question and follow up with another tough question. The pressure will continue to mount.
In The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described party meetings at a plant or factory where the workers would clap at the “good news” being announced by the party, and the person who stopped clapping too soon, or clapped with the least enthusiasm, was taken off and they never saw them again.
So the workers would strenuously clap themselves into frenzy, trying to outdo the other clappers. And on and on it would go in this ridiculous, prolonged upheaval, because nobody wanted to be the one that stopped and risked being taken away.
It will be interesting to see if and when the WH press corps dares to stop clapping, and who it might be.
Sorry ElcubanitoKC, I deleted my comment because I am such a crappy speller and editor, and reposted it below yours.
That you actually saw it yourself is amazing.
ElCubanito- Im not an unqualified supporter of Obama and I realize some of his policies-mainly the economic ones- are extremely worrying. That said, boiling down everything to 'hope and change' doesnt bring anything to this debate. It provides an easy opportunity for pithy one-liners, but its obviously pretty far from reality. Indeed the reason Obama is so loathed here is not because he has no policies and is full of empty rhetorical 'hope and change' but because many people here despise his policies- the torture saga? relaxing the Cuba embargo? the bailouts and the high debt he's set to run up in future budgets? closing Guantanamo? extending the hand of friendship to Iran? Re-assesing America's climate change approach viz the rest of the world? There's plenty in there to disagree with. So why persist with the 'hope and change' schtick?
Minzo, I ask you the same question.
I know what surprises me: the idiot reporters who won't (or can't) ask questions about the economy.
Remedial basic economics coloring book alert.
I don't recall but was there much attention to the Bush first 100 days? or Clinton?
Are they just amazed that he is still standing?
The old Confidence Man had trick #1 that went like this: "I love you, and we have a trusting relationship...Now if you don't believe everything I tell you, then your distrust will hurt me and end our love"! The new President Obama's style keeps sending us his Loving vibrations in his smiling face. That is his Gift. No one dares not to believe him. But take his smiling face off magasine covers and the TV propaganda shows/news for 90 days, and after withdrawal reactions are over, try reading this Con-President's same words to them and the same audience will laugh and suggest that he be arrested for fraud. That is where we are at.
I agree - Palladian is expressing all the stuff I can't say because I am a wimp. Thank you, Palladian
garage do you get acid reflux when you constantly stand up for the very junior senator who kicked your girl's ass from the office she so richly deserved?I don't take politics personal and I don't think I was standing up for Obama as much as chuckling at the woe is me comments from people like Palladian. It's like when Favre was just killing the Bears for a decade, it wasn't even a rivalry anymore. It's gotten so bad I'm almost prepared to help.
I wish some of the critics could actually put forth a convincing argument for why Obama is a fraud, stupid, boring, etc. But my natural take is, here is a competent, intelligent executive.
Am I really being hypnotized? I really did think George W. seemed to lack a strong intellect.
You know, that NYTimes reporter looked an awful lot like DownTownLad.
Montagne, how would you know you are being hypnotized?
I wish some of the critics could actually put forth a convincing argument for why Obama is a fraud, stupid, boring, etc. .
Well I don't know of any critics here at least that have made those kinds of arguments. I don't think he's a fraud but rather a straightforward big government liberal who believes the American people need government help for, well everything. I don't think he's so much stupid as he is naieve. Ridding the world of nuke weapons? That sounds great coming from a third grader but not the leader of the free world. Boring? No but hardly inspiring if he can't think quick enough on his feet when his teleprompter takes a shit.
Quayle said...
The longer this press love fest goes, the harder it is going to be for someone to actually ask a tough question and follow up with another tough question. The pressure will continue to mount..
Nah! After giving Obama 7-8 straight blowjobs on his knees, some reporter will ask a tough, probing question like "Despite your greatness, N Korea has elected not to worship you, Black Messiah...Can you explain why?
Other reporters, behind him, lining up on their knees, will laude the reporter for "proving his objectivity and dispelling any doubt that the professionals of the White House press corps are anything but fair, incisive interrogators...".
Then the blowjobs can recommence and the reporter who figuratively *spit* can get back in line for 7-8 more BJs in the coming months.
I did love the rest of your post, Quayle!
The applause thing for Stalin, Beria or the Jewish Bolsheviks in charge of various Party matters before or during Stalins reign is a wonderful analogy.
Also reminiscent of the video footage of Saddam announcing "traitors exist", hauling out people to gunshots heard in the distance - and watching a packed auditorium erupt into cheers, tears, applause for him as eagerly and desperately as the poor Russians once cheered for Trotsky, Yagoda, Beria, Mikhael Suslov, Abramovich, Zinoviev, Yezhov, Kaganovich, Stalin, Bukharin's ideas.
(Of course, American political parties have their own version of the Communist Party, Saddam mandatory applause moments and figurative blowjobbery. Republicans have made Barry Goldwater an icon instead of the man who almost destroyed the Republican Party - whose damage was undone by Nixon and key Midwest Republicans fashioning a Silent Majority, big tent Party. Reagan almost won with the Party Nixon & associates built..then did a few short years later...and adapted a few of Goldwaters least nutty ideas and broadened the Party further to add Reagan democrats to the Silent Majority.
But 30 years later, you saw nothing but Republican candidates doing nothing but blowjobs to old Reagan rightwing ideas that were actually a small part of his appeal to the majority of Americans of moderate, centrist, and light conservative leanings that put him in office. Old ideas best left in the 70s and 80s as they strived to outdo one another at the Reagan Presidential Library Suckoff Fest in 2008.
Or the rubes at Sarah Palin rallies acting to her as the Press Corps acts with Obama...
And let's not forget all those Democrat get togethers where a reverential hush happened when Teddy or Princess Caroline Herself arose to address them --then tears, applause, adulation for the Special People of Camelot..)
Woah...I was impressed for a moment. I thought ElCubanito was psycic.
As to these so called 'Press Conferences', they are a joke.
There are no questions of any substance being asked. It isn't as if we don't have some really serious issues to address as a nation. Bankrupcy of core industries, Government take over of private industry, the Socialization of our economy, terrorism, national security, swine flu.**
The entire thing is as scripted as a Kabuki theatre production...only a Hell of a lot LESS interesting or meaningful.
Why do we even waste our time watching these press conferences. Obama says nothing different from the same blather that he reads off of a teleprompter every freaking day. Has there been a day that he is NOT on the television?
OT** a friend of mine has a grandaughter who sent him this little tidbit that she made up herself. Shamelessly stealing her material.
Quote: "They said if we elected a black president pigs would fly. And on the 100th day swine flu."
DBQ:
I am going to steal that joke.
Does anybody know where one can find the ratings for "Lie to Me"?
I'd be curious to see how Fox did.
"But my natural take is, here is a competent, intelligent executive."
Intelligent, yes. Competent? Based on what?
Nominees who don't pay their taxes, DVD gift to UK PM, proposing to make wounded vets pay for their own treatment, bowing to Saudi king, insulting Special Olympians, TOTUS follies, DHS report insulting veterans, NYC flyover debacle, etc- Bush didn't have anywhere near this many gaffes in his first 100.
Intelligent, yes. Competent? Based on what?
Obama is skilled at seeming competent. He is very excutive-y. That's more enough for the Colbert nation. Actual experience or demonstrated achievements are just boring details. Superficiality, that's what's important.
MM,
Easy. He is not that intelligent. Check out his talks where he does not have a teleprompter. He doesn't connect things very well then.
He also does not take responsibilty. He is ultimately responsible for what his staff does. They do it in his name. He is never at fault. It is always someone else. If what they say is good, then it is his; if not, it is the staff.
What he says does not make sense. As an example, he is not concerned at all that the Islamists will get Pakistan's nuclear arsenal but he is gravely worried that the Pakistani govt cannot control the Islamists and defeat them. How can you believe one of those ideas and then also believe the other. If Pakistan falls, then the Islamists have the nuclear arsenal; If Pakistan does not fall, then they don't.
He is incapable of naming staff that is not crooked. How many of his people have shown up without major financial problems or immigration problems. Some of them are so bad that the one named has just withdrawn. The others are passed by his Congress and Senate.
His policies seem to be coming from the congressional Democrats and not from him.What is he actually proposing, not what is the congress actually proposing. He is reacting to them.
All in all, definitely not a leader in any way, shape or form. I can't wait until he is gone, and I hope, unlike Carter and Clinton, he stays gone.
I can't wait until he is gone, and I hope, unlike Carter and Clinton, he stays gone.
I just hope we survive that long.
Ok here are just a few questions that I think someone with press access to his Majesty should ask.
Mr. President, Mr. Bush was roundly criticized for cutting taxes while taking us into war and increasing spending thereby doubling the debt. Can you explain how you can then cut taxes for 95% of Americans although 95% don’t pay taxes, continue the two wars AND increase non-defense spending threefold?
Mr. President, you claimed that we need to reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Can you outline a plan to reduce our dependency on foreign subsidizing of our national debt?
Mr. President, if the use of force is not an option, can you tell us what incentives that haven’t already been offered by the Europeans, you will extend to Iran to prevent them from building nuclear weapons?
Mr. President, can you tell us why it’s taking so long to re-locate the prisoners from the internationally condemned Gitmo prison?
Mr. President can you please tell the American people, particularly those in industrial states like Ohio and Michigan how we are going to bring our manufacturing jobs back home?
Mr. President, as NATO is refusing to augment their forces in Afghanistan, can you tell us how much longer we can expect to keep fighting there?
Mr. President, a simple yes or no. Will your administration launch an investigation on former Bush administration officials for war crimes?
We listened for a while and I think that's the point where we finally turned it off. Since Obama was just about to say what he thought enchanting about the military, IIRC, I was a little annoyed when my husband hit the off button, but not enough to fuss at him about it.
I did rather like the, um, ah, answer about how bipartisanship was when the Democrats agreed on an issue with the Republicans *anyway* and that counted as reaching out to them, so the Republicans ought to go along with the things with which they disagreed.
The ratings are here:
FOX Lie to Me 2.4/7 2.1/7 7.88
CW Top Model 1.8/6 2.1/7 4.00
ABC Obama 1.6/5 1.4/5 6.12
CBS Obama 1.5/5 0.9/3 6.01
NBC Obama 1.6/5 1.1/4 6.68
UNI Obama 1.3/4 1.3/4 3.224
Fox's "Lie to Me" had the highest ratings for any single channel, and the total number of viewers of Obama's speech was roughly 22 million.
Do you want Sociaism in you medical care? Do you want a Pacifist foreign policy? Do you want the cost of transport/energy to go up 500%? Do you enjoy having no hope to better yourself financially because of 75%+ taxes if you do? Then to you Obama is a great savior courageously transforming America into the backwater area of North American Free Trade Zone. Go visit Detroit and try it out.
The continued hysteria of conservatives-- constantly ratcheting up of rhetoric (socialism, fascism, etc.), conspiracy mongering, and predicting calamities that don't come to pass-- all this is a recipe for permanent electoral defeat.
You say Obama is a teleprompter president... yet, he gives long answers at the press conference that aren't on the teleprompter. Is there a magic separation between the times he is giving a prepared speech and when he answers questions? I don't see it. I am not magically transported when he reads a prepared speech, and I don't find that he says stupid things when he's not reading a teleprompter. Again, this is something that I just can't see, that seems like a made-up, petty critique from ideological opponents.
By the way, it's not "cheating" to write a speech in advance of giving it. People do it all the time. I know Rush Limbaugh speaks ex-temp for hours at a stretch, but he is also completely unaccountable for anything that he says. It's different for government officials.
Why do people feel that Obama must speak extemporaneously to prove he is intelligent? Aren't you deluding yourselves a bit? How will conservatives ever hold power again if they continue to deny reality?
George Bush had an average mind. Obama is a smart guy. It's pretty clear.
He is so smart. Smart and dreamy. You like your men to be pussies, don't you.
Yeah, he's dreamy...
As one who lived for many years in a parliamentary monarchy, I'm delighted that America's head of state is a person of color ... sort of. As in sort of color, not sort of delighted.
In America, however, our head of state and head of government are fused. There is no prime minister. As head of government, Obama has been a bumbling tyro; one reason he is the second least popular president -- at this point in his term -- of the last ten.
Long answers, Montaigne, peppered with his neverending "uhs" and "ums". If I say that 700 times, it can take me three hours to answer a simple question. The problem is not of form, it's of substance.
By the way, it's not "cheating" to write a speech in advance of giving it. People do it all the time
Of course it isn't cheating. Anyone who is going to give a speech prepares and preps himself/herself on the outlines of the speech.
.
.
Why do people feel that Obama must speak extemporaneously to prove he is intelligent?
.
.However prepared a person is for a speech, they should be able to do more than just read the speech off of a teleprompter and be able to respond to changing situations. Obama is unable to speak extemporaniously or intellegently without a teleprompter. This doesn't bode well for his mental agility.
See DBQ, I saw him answer questions with answers I thought were thoughtful and complete, if a bit cautious. And he wasn't reading them.
Also, everyone in the world uses some kind of placeholder like "umm" . Look it up, it's studied in linguistics.
Unfortunately, we don't see the same things. So I don't think we'll ever be able to talk about anything.
Montagne, I don't know how old you are, but perhaps old enough to know that George W. Bush got an MBA from Harvard when it still meant a lot. "Legacies" could get an undergrad degree, but it took high intelligence to get into the MBA program, let alone graduate from it.
I don't agree with a lot of what Bush did, but to question his intelligence, and to compare it negatively to Obama's, is a clear sign of ignorance (please note that I said ignorance, and not stupidity).
Let me think...who voted for this boring-arrogant-bs'ing candidate?... Anne, it's about time to confess your regrets...
Unlike Obama getting into Harvard Law and heading the law review, which was just because he was black and an affirmative action pick, riiiiiiiigggght?
so Bush at HBS= proof of intelligence
Obama at Harvard Law= proof of his stupidity.
GOT IT! TKS.
Also, everyone in the world uses some kind of placeholder like "umm" . .
And if you ever took a public speaking class in college or even high school, you'd get critiqued on those placeholders.
Seems you place an individual's intelligence on thier speaking ability rather than actual accomplishments. As I said, I don't think Obama is stupid but rather naive. It's quite possible to be intelligent enough to become a Harvard law grad and lack basic common sense.
Giving a long answer also doesn't denote intelligence or speaking ability. Some of the most intelligent responses can short and to the point.
For example: Mr. President, why is it taking so long to close down Gitmo?
President Obama: Because we still can't find any country that will take these people off our hands.
That's short and honest. Something he really should try but I suspect he'd rather not damage his poll numbers.
Montagne, that was just childish. I simply pointed out that Bush is intelligent. Did I say Obama was stupid?
Unlike Obama getting into Harvard Law and heading the law review, which was just because he was black and an affirmative action pick, riiiiiiiigggght?.
That's funny. I looked at Buford's post and he didn't say a word about affirmative action.
Hoosier Daddy: from the press conference...
Q: Did the previous administration sanction torture?
THE PRESIDENT: I believe that waterboarding was torture. And I think that the — whatever legal rationales were used, it was a mistake.
Is that not brief enough?
And Buford, I apologize, you did not make that argument. But I bet I could find some people around here who could.
p.s. When does getting elected the first mixed-race president in US history start to count as an accomplishment for Obama?
"p.s. When does getting elected the first mixed-race president in US history start to count as an accomplishment for Obama?"
How is that an accomplishment for him? For the country, possibly, but for him?
Buford-- he had nothing to do with getting elected?
THE PRESIDENT: I believe that waterboarding was torture. And I think that the — whatever legal rationales were used, it was a mistake.
Is that not brief enough?.
Sure. Then I would have preferred he elaborated on what the acceptable techniques he claimed we could have extracted the information without causing Khalid the Headhacker discomfort.
His response was nothing more than Monday morning quarterbacking.
Hoosier-- anything in the US Army field manual. He answered your question with an executive order.
Montagne, getting elected is an accomplishment. Getting elected as a mixed race candidate isn't his accomplishment. It seems there are more race conscious people on the left than on the right. The fact that the American electorate didn't let his race get in the way shows that we have come a long way.
Hoosier-- anything in the US Army field manual. He answered your question with an executive order..
Well evidently he is incorrect since they had to waterboard Khalid for him to give it up.
Unless you're taking the position that we went straight to the waterboarding before asking Khalid nicely whether there were any other pending attacks on innocent Americans.
Hoosier - Mr. President, if the use of force is not an option, can you tell us what incentives that haven’t already been offered by the Europeans, you will extend to Iran to prevent them from building nuclear weapons?If you want to be realistic, you would rephrase it, as it would be asked Iranians, not Obama.
Given the Israelis seek to maintain regional nuclear, biological weapons monopoly to your West, you have your traditional enemy of the Sunni Muslim Kush now with nuclear weapons, you have nuclear Russia to your North which has long looked to your lands and a southern sea route? What economic incentives can America offer you tat Europe can't to ignore these strategic "facts on the ground"? And after losing 2/3rds of a million to Iraq, don't you feel more at ease knowing that the American gov't devoted to serving Israel (and also allied to the Gulf oil Arabs you Iranians detest) is at your Border?
And with your oil and gas limited in reserves and far more profitable selling for other uses rather than make electricity - how would you feel about abandoning all your nuclear hopes? Including peaceful use reactors - as the Israelis demanded US politicians housed in their stable demand of you?
And ask if "you Iranians" fear any attack on your country by the Americans or their "Special Friend" - knowing that Iran can close the Straight of Hormuz for months, create a follow-on oil embargo joined by most petroleum exporting nations - with all blame for the Global Depression and the embargo going to the attackers? Given that the US does not have adequate land forces and Israel would have to violate the sovereign airspace of several countries just to get there?
Hoosier-- you are supremely confident. But professionals in the field of interrogation support the decision to forgo waterboarding. Even Nazis. If you have time, you could read about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanns_Scharff
The continued hysteria of conservatives-- constantly ratcheting up of rhetoric (socialism, fascism, etc.), conspiracy mongering, and predicting calamities that don't come to pass-- all this is a recipe for permanent electoral defeat.This is all the liberals did over the last eight years. Seems like it turned out OK for them.
Funny, bushman. Seems like the war in Iraq actually came to pass and that it pretty much sucked, on top of lasting for a decade and costing a trillion dollars (I don't recall those facts being included in the sales pitch).
"Given that the US does not have adequate land forces and Israel would have to violate the sovereign airspace of several countries just to get there?"
Given the Entebbe Raid, the strike on PLO in Tripoli, and recent air strikes on arms convoys in the Sudan, I don't think airspace violations are at the top of the Israeli's problem list for taking on Tehran. Not trivial but not insuperable.
montaigne - "p.s. When does getting elected the first mixed-race president in US history start to count as an accomplishment for Obama?"
Why are "Negro 1sts!" regarded as some accomplishment in areas where race and minority status are bonus point things, not impediments?
A women who was the 1st wheelchair bound, hispanic-Jewish lesbian elected to Congress in Manhattan would just be piling on bonus points under Democrat Party affirmative action/identity politics values.
As for Obama, we know that no white, Asian, or possibly even Hispanic person of similar credentials - one year in the Senate, no executive experience, but Ivy League pedigrees - would ever be seriously considered for the jump to the Presidency by the media, inner circle powerbrokers, or the the billionair families who backed Obama.
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Why do people feel that Obama must speak extemporaneously to prove he is intelligent? Umm, well you know, Caroline Kennedy went to a prestigious Ivy Law School. you know. And like, you know...ummm she must be pretty smart..and uhhh....Caroline did pretty darn well umm ...at all those Conventions reading "Tribute to the Kennedys" montages off the telePrompter, you know..
"Seems like the war in Iraq actually came to pass and that it pretty much sucked, on top of lasting for a decade and costing a trillion dollars (I don't recall those facts being included in the sales pitch)."
Every time I hear this I can't help but wonder...
At what point does a person consign to a "sales pitch" what ought to be obvious given a moment or two and a couple of neurons to rub together?
How long has *any* war lasted, if recovery was included? If someone makes a claim that because the "sales pitch" didn't include the long-haul that they are *excused* from considering the long-haul... what kind of moronic avoidance of personal responsibility for one's own understanding of the world is that?
Seems like the war in Iraq actually came to pass and that it pretty much sucked, on top of lasting for a decade and costing a trillion dollars (I don't recall those facts being included in the sales pitch).
That's because the terms of the sale changed on 9-11.
That's because the terms of the sale changed on 9-11.Speak for yourself.
Lately I've been depressed thinking that my grandchlidren will come of age in a bilingual welfare state.
Move to California, you won't even have to wait for grandkids. :)
Funny, bushman. Seems like the war in Iraq actually came to pass and that it pretty much sucked, on top of lasting for a decade and costing a trillion dollars (I don't recall those facts being included in the sales pitch)The war in Iraq lasted a couple weeks and didn't cost that much. It is the attempt to build a stable democracy in Iraq that has cost us so much money.
In retrospect, perhaps we should simply have destroyed the Baathist government, shot Hussein and his flunkies, and then left a note saying "give us any more trouble and we'll be back". That would only have cost us 50-100 billion and I wouldn't have had to listen to lefties whine about how building democracies costs too much money.
Revenant, why can't you admit that the Bush administration, when making its case for war with Iraq in 2002, drastically oversold the threats (WMD) and drastically undersold the price (firing Shinseki when he said it would take 200,000 troops to stabilize Iraq, declaring "mission accomplished" when more than half of our casualties were yet to come).
These are matters of record. Elections have been decided on the basis of those facts. You need to stop being the Japanese soldier in a cave in 1954 still fighting WWII.
Fox's "Lie to Me" had the highest ratings for any single channel, and the total number of viewers of Obama's speech was roughly 22 million.
I scanned the TV listings last evening and thought "Lie to Me" was the Obama 100th Day Press Conference.
Elections have been decided on the basis of those facts.And future elections will be based on the massive debt that O is currently racking up. Conservatives have every right to object to this boondoggle.
Revenant, why can't you admit that the Bush administration, when making its case for war with Iraq in 2002, drastically oversold the threats (WMD)
Why does every discussion about Obama revert to "bush lied people died" "wmds waah waah wah". So boring. So predictible. Such talking points memorized and robotically spewed out without any deviations...just like Obama and his speeches.
It's almost like the left has some form of Bush Tourettes.
btw, what's with the new format change? it's driving me crazy.
I think the problem here with President Obama is not that he is stupid, but rather that the MSM and other supporters are so in thrall with him that at this press conference they all but fawned on him, instead of doing their job and asking even moderately hard questions.
This isn't a small lurch to the left, but rather a huge leap into the abyss. Few here think that it has any chance of doing anything except for beggaring our grandchildren and maybe bringing our enemies back to our shores. And yet, the press still fawn all over him.
I don't think that anyone here thinks that President Obama is stupid. Harvard Law is no mean accomplishment (though HBS would have been much more useful in running the country). But the man comes to the office uniquely unprepared. Even the much denigrated Truman had some executive experience before ascending to the office. That means that we need to go back a century or so to find someone with his singular lack of relevant experience. And the world is a much more complex and dangerous place now than it was back then.
That lack of experience comes out in a number of ways, including his wishful thinking economics and foreign policy. This is someone who six months ago was first getting asked about how the economy works and how to fix it, and obviously still hasn't gotten a clue. He thinks that all he needs to do to stimulate the economy is call wasteful government spending "investment" and promise not to raise taxes on anyone except for the guy behind the tree, and the economy will recover all on its own, despite trillions of dollars flushed down the toilet now and over the next ten years (and a lot longer than that if he gets his socialized medicine and carbon indulgences). Then add in his industrial policy of destroying our banks and turning two of our automakers into British Leyland in order to bail out the UAW, and he thinks that anyone in their right mind is going to invest here?
Finally, the reason for the teleprompter jokes is first that he really seems to need the things, even to introduce new cabinet secretaries. Secondly, there are some very smart people who appear to be running him. Is he just their mouth piece? Or is that really him? The easiest answer is that President Obama is not personally evil in what he is trying to do, but rather, the dupe of his handlers, such as Axelrod and Emanuael, who really are.
Hey....
I don't recall anything about "massive debt" in the "sales pitch" we've been getting from Obama.
If he's not selling the "debt" it's really unfair of us to expect it.
garage mahal said...
100 days down. 2820 to go!
How do you figure? 4 years only have 1,461 days and he has used-up 100 of them.
Or does Obama presage the "One man one vote, one time" ethos as we quickly become a bannana republic? If so, why limit your self to 2820? Obama is pretty young and will easily live another 10,000 days.
declaring "mission accomplished" when more than half Ha ha ha ha ha. And there it is, Ladies and Gentlemen. All the proof one ever needs to indicate you're arguing with an unteachable idiot.
Just for that, Idiot, Obama flew AF1 past the statue of liberty knowing full well it would terrorize city dwellers still jumpy after 9-11. Proving the man is tone-deaf to human sentiments and that he exists in a 9-10 state of being. I will repeat this wrongness wherever inappropriate for, oh, how 'bout that ... lets see, that was May 1, 2003 and tomorrow is May 1, 2009, that's um, 9 - 3 = 7. That's it, seven years at least of obnoxious willfully being totally wrong just to drive you insane with insistent ignorance. That should do.
Why does every discussion about Obama revert to "bush lied people died" "wmds waah waah wah".
Because it's easier than thinking?
Montagne wrote: "Revenant, why can't you admit that the Bush administration, when making its case for war with Iraq in 2002, drastically oversold the threats (WMD), blah, blah, blah ...."
Isn't this the guy who asked for substantive objections to Obama's first 100 days? Now that several commenters have responded, we're back to, "Bush this, Bush that, Iraq, Iraq" -- just like Obama and the Obots.
A tabloid President and his mindless groupies.
Why do we even waste our time watching these press conferences.
(From DBQ way above)
Some of us don't.
Never watched or listened to a single one.
Waste. Of. Time.
Annnnnnd today, there were press conferences to cover up what the court jester, Bozo Biden said about the Swine flu.
I love it when morons say one thing, claim they mean another, or like that door mat at State- do not listen to what I say, read what I say.
Er, em, ah, heh, em, er, huh; how about ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Suckers!
How do you figure? 4 years only have 1,461 days and he has used-up 100 of them.I was counting 8 years, of course.
Different strokes, I guess, but I really liked Zeleny's question. It was certainly unexpected, and assuming Obama wasn't aware it was coming, it gave us some insight into how he thinks on his feet.
In any case, I felt for a moment that we were all playing a parlor game with the President.
Do we believe this was unscripted though?
Mr President, How do you really feel after your first 100 days in office?
I Feel Pretty.
Revenant, why can't you admit that the Bush administration, when making its case for war with Iraq in 2002, drastically oversold the threats (WMD) and drastically undersold the price (firing Shinseki when he said it would take 200,000 troops to stabilize Iraq, declaring "mission accomplished" when more than half of our casualties were yet to come).
Shinseki was not "fired" because of his remarks to congress about Iraq troop numbers. He was already on his way out when he testified, having fallen out with Rumsfeld over Rumsfeld's decision to cancel the Crusader (yes, Crusader!) mobile artillery piece.
Shinseki actually estimated it would take 300,000-400,000 troops. His etimate was not correct.
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