You do realize, I hope, that the government doesn’t pay the networks to broadcast a presidential press conference. They do so because such an event is newsworthy. So the cost is minimal.
I was bummed that they pre-empted house. Oh well. It was still interesting to watch.
That said, I thought he did pause a lot and didn’t seem super-rehearsed and all that. Which is good and bad I suppose. Still impressive, and I was amused by the whole A-Rod Q too.
I’m bummed I missed it. Is there possibly a link?
Yup.
I kept thinking as I watched, can anyone with even a single brain cell imagine Sarah Palin handling that press conference even one millionth as deftly or intelligently? HA HA HA
I don’t know, shooting reporters from Marine One probably takes some skill, and wearing a color coordinated outfit adds a whole 'nother layer of complexity to it. 
Dude! That’s my president. And he’s, like, articulate, or something. How did that happen? 
Yes, he did have many pauses (uhs, etc), and he overused the phrase “the bottom line”, but he sounded informed and not rehearsed with talking points. Yes, he did have a prepared message and prepared response content, but the utterances above indicate actually thinking out the wording on the spot.
Yeah, is that really the President’s job? Tell us how Major League Baseball should react to steroids?
He said he was reviewing the policy and was taking input on the full ramifications and that he wasn’t prepared to make a decision yet. That’s a direct answer that he isn’t ready to make a statement either way. Not really an evasion, just not a conclusive response.
I immediately tweaked to the Israel angle. Not to derail this thread, but why would it be such a big deal for the President to admit Israel has nukes? Pretty much everyone knows that, right?
Being President is a full time job. He is serving the American people. The White House is not just his residence, but his place of work, including a significant staff. There are major security issues with being President, so housing him makes it cheaper for the American people to put him in a place prepared for the information, security, and operation issues rather than trying to retrofit some external housing.
Besides, the Presidential salary is ludicrously low compared to the responsibility and authority he carries.
Not to speak for guizot, but I think you done got whooshed.
And let him ride around in a convertible. It was good enough for Kennedy.
Ouch - boy, that doesn’t sound right.
I found it fascinating - he engaged. He, like any good politician and leader, steered the topics back to his main themes, but he came across as intelligent and like he respected the reporters and us.
Wow.
There wasn’t that “I’m reading from a literal list of talking points” quality that every single W speech had. After 8 years of that, this is refreshing. I actually watched the whole press conference, which I’ve basically NEVER done.
I intended to just check out the highlights later, but once I took a listen, I watched the whole thing. It really was refreshing.
What a change. How refreshing.
Coupla thoughts:
While I was familiar with the term “ginned up,” I was surprised to hear it from a president. Went to my dictionary to see the exact etiology - was a tad surprised to not find it. I found his speech patterns interesting - and not displeasing. Found I was listening to him differently than during the campaign, when it was all parroting talking points.
Really liked his discussion of bipartisanship. Gave the answer I would hope for from a president of either party - while leaving no question who was in charge, and reminding folks of recent history. Guy consistently hit it out of the park.
I saw Helen Thomas speak last year. She looked - and sounded - much frailer yesterday than when I saw her. I thought her question(s) mighty weak, and was a tad surprised at her attempts of repeated follow-ups.
Thought it was fine on occasion for him to say a certain policy - such as coffin photos - was under review and comment would be premature. Sets the stage for the next conference, for someone to hold his feet to the fire asking - how’s that review going?
Loved his response re: Biden. “I have no idea what he was talking about!” And thought he decently dealth with an attempted “gotcha” question.
So, “O.K.” is Obama-speak for “I’m done with this question”?
Any idea how they chose the reporters he called? Was it random? I hope they weren’t required to submit their questions ahead of time.
Man, when he went on and on in response to the first question, I wasn’t sure if it was set for 30 or 60 minutes, and feared he might not even get to a second question. A question is not the opportunity to spout off everything you know and believe that is tangentially related. His responses got much better after that, tho.
Overall I found it one of the most entertaining hours of TV I’ve watched in some time.
Seems like a waste of time to me, televising it, I mean. It’s a press conference…that means the media ask the President questions, then later report on his answers in the newspapers and things. So, what’s the point of that if I can see it live right there?
It would have been better to watch House and then read about the press conference in the paper.
What really impresses me as a waste of time is when the talking head spends 5 minutes after the conference telling you what the guy just said.
For routine press conferences, I’d agree with you. Press secretaries know how to talk in sound bites, and they have much more familiarity with the reporters who cover the White House, so they know where the questions are coming from. I can assure you that the reporter from the New York Times is going to ask different questions than the reporter from some small chain out west.
For presidential press conferences, not so much. They’re generally tied into one or two specific issues, and the president may have a lot to say about them, as Obama did last night. They’re also more direct in their approach, so there is no filter, either through the press secretary or through the media. The American viewing public thus got all of the questions and all of the answers, rather than some reporter’s summary.
Robin
I think the television tax covers it.
What a change to see a president speak English fluently.
I’d wondered that too since he appeared to look down at a list. From the Huffington Post:
*"Before Tuesday’s press conference, incoming Press Secretary Robert Gibbs assigned numbers to CBS, NBC and ABC, then he had an aide select a number from one to three. And that’s how NBC correspondent Savannah Guthrie came to kick off the Q&A with the president-elect.
Fair? Arbitrary? Haphazard? Perhaps. But the press corps has another word for it: Confusing.
A “transition period hybrid,” is how spokesperson Jen Psaki described the method behind the apparent selection madness, which was all the more baffling since traditional White House protocol - based on strict rules and hierarchy – was followed during Obama’s first post-election presser on Nov. 7."*
I might agree with you if we could assume that the media would do a good job covering the conference. But since neither you nor I are fucking chimpanzees, we cannot make that assumption.
–Cliffy
I, for one, was fucking a chimpanzee last night so I missed the conference. Thanks for the link, Shayna – I’m watching it now.