VIDEO UPDATE: President stands tall in face of tough economic questions during prime time press conference
Tuesday night, President Barack Obama held his 2nd prime time press conference. The President started the press conference with a 7 minute statement where he spoke directly to the American people, seeking to assure them with regards to the economy and his budget plan. Then he took questions.
The reporters were very focused on asking questions about the budget, whether or not the President’s deficit spending would spiral out of control, and of course AIG. The White House Press Corp. repeated a few questions, an excessive amount of time on Republicans who have been critical of the President’s budget and deficit spending.
“First of all, I suspect that some of those Republican critics have a short memory, because as I recall, I’m inheriting a $1.3 trillion deficit, annual deficit, from them,” Obama said in response to claims that his budget was the most irresponsible in American history. “…there’s a interesting reason why some of these critics haven’t put out their own budget. I mean, we haven’t seen an alternative budget out of them,” he went on to say, “…the reason is because they know that, in fact, the biggest driver of long-term deficits are the huge health care costs that we’ve got out here that we’re going to have to tackle.”
My favorite part of the press conference was when the president snapped on Ed Henry from CNN. Ed started out fine by asking about his “anger” with regards to AIG and the executive bonuses. But then Ed tried to press the President on the timing of his anger.
“So on AIG, why did you wait — why did you wait days to come out and express that outrage?” Henry asked, “Why did it take so long?” Obama snapped back at Henry, “Well, it took us a couple of days because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak….all right?”
The response garnered laughter in the press room, and excitement amongst my Twitter Followers. Some of my favorite Tweets from the evening:
PoliticalDivaRT @HopeChat: RT @roadkillrefugee MSNBC cam pans press corp: a sea of aging vanilla & gray looking down at notebooks
MonroeAndersonIt took days to speak on AIG comeback was a smack in the reporter’s face.
cristalbubblin“Cuz i like to know what Im talking about BEFORE I speak *smirk*”- President Obama *SHOTS FIRED* I love it LOL
oshunj#Obama got it right! He speaks re: #AIG bonuses when he knows what he is talking about…#CNN reporter got an ear full! Luv it!!
GEM2001You that was coming when he gave him the” President Obama Pursed Lip”
PoliticalDivaSomeone got their face cracked….
shawnpwilliams Not sure what CNN dude was hoping to accomplish, but I’m sure it wasn’t being snapped on by the POTUS.
It took a while, but it was nice to see Kevin Chappell of Ebony ask a question at the press conference. I enjoyed the direction he took his question, focusing on the people (homeless) who are affected by the economy. The President also spoke up on how veterans have been hit harder by the economy at higher rates than the rest of the country. I also thought the last question on the Israel/Palestinian conflict.
The questions were tougher this go around, but the President had a good showing. His next step will be working with Blue Dog Democrats to get behind is efforts with energy and health care.
