President Obama said:
I actually feel energized about the opportunities that we've got.I think that's another way to say that he is exhausted by all the work. Obviously, he can't concede that he's exhausted, so Todd has simply handed him an opportunity to talk back to the people who say he looks exhausted. Why bother? There's zero hope of getting a serious, truthful answer. I'm not blaming Obama here. I'm blaming Todd.
Obama continues:
There are days when I'm not getting enough sleep because we've got a lot on our plate. When you're president of the United States...Blah blah blah... insert references to problems he's dealing with and run out more time.
Todd ends the interview with: "Well, I think I need to pre-book you for next week, because I've got about another 35 questions." Ugh! Take out the comfy questions that do nothing but force him to bullshit and run out the clock!
Todd thanks Obama, who says: "I enjoyed it." I'll bet he did. And: "Great to see you." I'll bet it is.
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21 comments:
The golf "optics" remark was really funny. This from the side that drove Bush off the golf course for the rest of his presidency by beating up on the optics of him playing golf.
What really surprised him was that his party affiliation wouldn't protect him from the same effects.
I blame my exhaustion on Obama.
NBC apparently believes viewers fled Meet the Press after Tim Russert died not because they felt David Gregory failed to question politicians from both sides in the same manner, but because David was too smarmy, or his hair was too perfect, or something having nothing to do with how the questioning was conducted.
It's simply the packaging, not the content, so let's just can David and bring in Chuck Todd to ask Obama the same set of questions from the same point of view Gregory would have, and expect future ratings to skyrocket back to Russert levels. "Meet the Press" will have good numbers for Sunday's show, because it was Todd's debut and because he was interviewing the president. But there was nothing about the interview itself that signaled any fundamental change in the direction of the show from where Gregory had taken it since Russert's death, and six months from now the ratings will likely reflect that shuffling of the deck chairs on the Titanic (and having Tim's son and Joe Scarborough on as sidekicks isn't going to do anything to fix that problem).
"I enjoyed it."
Chuck Todd doesn't drag his teeth....metaphorically speaking.
Ah Ms. Althouse. You've come to notice that the Lightworker bullshits a lot.
Well better smart late than never.
Did Todd really look orange?
So, the real question is "Did Obama tip Todd appropriately?"
Mark, Old joke:
Did Todd wake up with a bad taste in is mouth and a quarter in his hand?
Similar expressions of empathy
He looks exhausted.
Those golf clubs aren't going to swing themselves.
Job, blown.
So, all went as predicted?
The media are so far in the tank they won't even try to make it look like they're even handed. Hypocrisy may be the compliment vice pays to virtue, but the media have lost even that damning fig leaf.
"Ugh! Take out the comfy questions that do nothing but force him to bullshit and run out the clock!"
Do that and there's no point to MTP.
Obama seems to have or make a lot of time for fundraising.
Eliminating that would be a super easy way to cut down on his workload. If he's exhausted, that is. If he feels he has too much on his plate.
Something is wrong with him, I don't know if its depression, tranquilizers or what, but his lids are only half open during the pressers. I've noticed it for most of this year and being energized is not what I associate with someone who looks like he just came off of 24 hour guard duty.
"Did Todd really look orange?"
Yeah, he kinda did.
It is fun to see Obama's defenders going on about how his vacations aren't real vacations because he has to work so much on them, and how presidents need to let off some steam, etc. I must have missed these same people sticking up for Bush when he was getting constantly ripped for taking so many vacations of his own to go clear brush in Texas.
It's true that presidents do actually work on their "vacations" and don't get any true rest during their terms (which explains why they seem to age so much). Obviously they're not off the grid, and good presidents should have trusty subordinates running the minor day to day stuff anyway. This was as true for Bush as it is for Obama. The problem for both though was that the way things look can matter a great deal--crisis overseas, or natural disaster, and it looks bad for the president to be golfing, even if he has spent most of the day reading briefings and dictating memos. And when the economy is doing poorly, it looks equally bad when the president or his family is taking some opulent vacation, even though we all know they're not living in spartan poverty during their term. It just means that they have to at least appear to be "on" while they're in the White House, and save the real relaxing stuff for when they're out of office. You can't afford to be seen as fiddling while Rome burned, even if that's an unfair image.
David was too smarmy
He gave me the creeps.....or is the word squicky?
How do you make the media do their jobs?
Vote for a conservative.
I watched the full interview and I got the impression that Todd did a half-decent job on foreign policy.
Obama's dug-in and convinced of his ideals, no matter the results.
Everyone's realizing that Obama probably took in with his mother's milk the idea that America is an occupier and force and American boots on the ground are 'bad.'
So back to half-measures, half-wits around Obama and other true-believers and more empty rhetoric and pussyfooting around.
When Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell have already thought a few moves ahead of you after a minute of analysis, you're failing to come up with a strategy.
This is what Congress and anyone else dealing with the man has found out. He's set in his ways and loyal to his peace principles and activist coalitions.
Not a realist, not patriotic enough for that. More of a cautious progressive idealist deeply skeptical of his own country.
Reminds me of the Dr Who episode when the Tenth Doctor demolishes UK Prime Minister Harriet Jones with six words: "Don't you think she looks tired?"
The Doctor might have used another phrase on a male PM, I suppose...
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