Obama: Yes, yes I do Bret.
He wasn’t being interrupted because he was avoiding questions. He was being interrupted before he had a chance to answer the damn questions. From Fox News’ own transcript:
My guess is that it is about to start up again.
Which is a pity - he clearly needs practice in handling interviewers who do not jump in to help when he begins to splutter.
Out of the Oval Office? And what - lock himself in the bathroom?
Regards,
Shodan
I’m just surprised he gave the interview at all, after what Fox did to the Clinton interview.
Hard to tell from that quote, since you started with Obama’s answer, not Bret’s question.
Jack Chick tracts?
Meh, he wasn’t that bad. He interrupted a few times, and was generally smarmy, but I was expecting TeaBagger levels of rudeness.
That would have been unthinkable! UnAmerican! Treasonous! America haters and freedom haters! Aarrrrrgggghhhhhh!
[foam flecks and flying spittle]
Let’s see someone interview, I dunno, Karl Rove in this same manner. And then Cheney, and then Bush. Interview them all the same way, with interuptions and attempts at gotchas, etc. Play hardball? SURE! With ALL of them.
Ok. I located the transcript. Here was the question:
Now, I’ll be the first one to admit that Baier is asking a sort of silly “gotcha” question, not unlike what reporters do all the time, but Obama wasn’t answering it.
Baier wanted to talk about Process, and Obama clearly didn’t. Makes perfect sense to me from both sides.
If I were in that spot, I’d have said “shut the fuck up”.
That would be fine with me.
Smart move, IMO. While the True Wingnut Right wouldn’t be swayed if Pres. Obama pulled million dollar bills wrapped in long form vault birth certificates from his fundament, a part of the Republican core is people like starving Artist who see a lot of things as emblematic of a decline in society – and what they saw is the elected President of the United States, the first black man elected to that office, being verbally browbeaten and jerked around by a reporter – and keeping his cool and trying to give substantive answers. Guess who comes off ahead in that exchange.
I’d have to agree.
Well, yes, since the point was to highlight the constant interruptions.
Irrelevant. What matters is what the Fox True Believers (not the Wingnuts, but the people who keep the thing on all day as background noise) saw in the deconstruction, re-editing, and “analysis” of said interview over the next few hours and days.
I’m not going to subject myself to it. Can someone with a stronger stomach explain how it was treated by Fox’s talking heads? Because that’s what steers the viewer’s opinions.
-Joe
The question wasn’t just if he was being interrupted, but if he was being interrupted for avoiding the question. We can’t see if he was avoiding the question unless we see the question.
Right, so the first interruption makes some sense. The next four are just this Baier guy being a douche.
I have a question: Do presidents usually get treated in this manner? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a president interviewed by a hostile questioner.
The reason I’m saying this is that I tend to expect that, while Fox is usually full of jerks who like to talk over people, I’d expect a better response to the president.
Also, funny that they can talk back to the president, but if someone talks back to a mod…
Yes. A thousand times YES.
Barack Obama is not hard to figure out. He is consciously styling his leadership style after Abraham Lincoln. He’s said so numerous times, and he’s doing it.
Lincoln put up with all kinds of crap from his generals - MacClennan kept Lincoln waiting when he called on him! He put up with insubordination within his own cabinet (Salmon P Chase was trying to set himself up as a candidate next election). He also never pursued revenge against anybody.
The balls you seek are bullshit - real balls are answering questions, not using bullying and intimidation even though they’re in your power, and maintaining your own dignity.
Yes, probably. But I guess you could also argue that the question never really changed, so it was all Baier trying to get things back on track to the original question.