I wonder if at least some of the folks who consider last night’s exercise to be a waste of time/money are of an age that they forget that press conferences were not always the rarity they were during the most recent past administration. I remember when I was young, I used to get pissed when a presidential speech or press conference pre-empted my shows. But then there was a time during my young adulthood when presidents such as Reagan and Clinton actually made some attempt to communicate to the public. Then there were the dark past 8 years, when I could not bring myself to watch/listen to that smirking chimp.
If only on a symbolic level, I think press conferences are an impressive representation of our society, useful both domestically and internationally. Perhaps not the most important tool an administration can use to communicate, but certainly one that should not be ignored.
I thought last night’s press conference was yet one more indication that this administration desires to be more open and forthright than its predecessor - which I tend to think a good thing.
It finished at about 9:01 or :02. I don’t watch 24, but on the other stations it looks like they skipped the 8:00 and 8:30 shows and went straight to the 9:00s from the beginning.
Right! I recorded it on the DVR, just so I could back it up and replay every time he pronounced “nuclear” correctly. I’d hit rewind and whisper, “Talk dirty to me, Barry!” and hit play.
Nuclear.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. The joys of a literate president. Makes me a squishy inside.
If it’s like it always was before, the president has a seating chart. That’s so he doesn’t have to go, “You. Yeah, you there with the yellow pants. No, not the bell bottoms. The other guy.”
I was not aware that the previous president ever spoke an entire complete sentence. Wow, you learn something new every day!
It is nice that the current president can speak not just in complete sentences, but in complete paragraphs. I only wish it wasn’t a shock to me that a president could do this.
I don’t think it was a seating chart; the president would read off a name and affiliation, then look around, saying something like, “Charlie, okay, where are you, Charlie?” spot the rising reporter and acknowledge him/her.
It looked to me as if President Obama (with Gibbs?) had gone over the list of reporters likely to be present beforehand and settled on an order of questioners.
There is a seating chart, and a definite seating order, but the President hasn’t had the opportunity to memorize it yet. He’s been a little busy. I’m sure he knew all the national reporters covering his campaign, but they are a different bunch than the ones who are the official Whitehouse reporters. By his 3rd news conference, he’ll have all these folks memorized.
Former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer told O’Reilly that Obama probably has a predetermined list. Most likely picked out by Gibbs. Watch it here.
If you think about it, it makes no sense to pick them out at random during a live telecast.
Also newsworthy is that he called on a reporter from the Huffington Post. Apparently this is the first time that a reporter from an internet site got called to ask a question. Not counting, of course, the time Bush called on a gay prostitute.
Ari Fleischer also said about the Huffington Post reporter, “And there are some reporters, you know, in that briefing room, you can imagine, Bill, you get a lot of dot coms and other oddballs who come in there. They’re screened.”
37 million, NOT counting cable viewers (let alone online viewers, which is how I saw it) has just got to give Republicans nightmares.
Even Jerkoff Joe (Scarborough, not Lieberman) had to admit, and this was before these viewer numbers came out but after the poll numbers shown in the piece, that maybe, just maybe, they don’t know what they’re talking about. For the past couple plus weeks these pundits and Republican politicians have been pounding on the idea that the stimulus is BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD!!! but the American people are pretty much saying, “fuck off, we don’t believe you anymore” just like they did on election day.
President Obama is a smart, smart man. I’m in awe.
