... and everybody knows, Prezdentin' ain't easy. [krak]
President's Biannual Press Conference Thread

Mr. Obama has told people that it would be so much easier to be the president of China. As one official put it, “No one is scrutinizing Hu Jintao’s words in Tahrir Square.”

...

I got 'nuthin. Or to be more accurate, I got so much that I don't even know where to start.

Update [ace]: Obama again claims that Democrats have met Republicans "halfway" on spending cuts. Refuses to be specific, but hints he wants to see something between the Republicans' number (61 billion) and the Democrats (6 billion).

Um, that's a lot of frickin' range. Lead much? Oh right that's not your job.

"Irresponsible:" Thinks doing 2-week extensions is "irresponsible" because he's got a war in Afghanistan. Does not seem to grasp that the issue is not being resolved because he will not lead, follow, or get out of the way.

His leadership style is to lead from the rear, that is, not to lead; he says nothing and defers to others to figure it out, then rides in at the end to claim credit.

That's why the process is taking this long, because of his own dilatory voting-present style.

But when he calls this "irresponsible," you can bet he doesn't have himself in mind.

Nothing Can Be Cut: He basically defines cuts as belonging one of two forbidden categories:

1. Cutting our "Investments in the future." High speed rail and Pell grants cannot be cut because they are investments in the future.

2. "Sneaking" a political agenda into a budget dispute. This category includes pretty much everything else -- if you're cutting an unnecessary program like NPR, that's really just sneaking an ideological agenda into a budget discussion, and that's not allowed.

After this political bickering by Obama, he heroically calls on others to "stop their political bickering."

My Hero: Chip Reid confronts him with an old quote in which Obama said that if a tyrant was massacring civilians, the US would be morally obligated to intervene.

Obama claims that's still the rule but doesn't want to make commitments on this score -- says it will all be "judgment calls."

Note he had an opportunity here to set a Red Line for Gadaffy and specifically declined to do so.

I know what I'm thinking about Obama's "moral obligation." That it's a non-obligation.

Says he will "monitor" the situation and continue "consulting" with everybody.

You know what's scary? In Halloween, when The Shape "monitors the situation" and then "consults with Secretary Gates and the international community" about killing people. So scary.

Jaws was scary too. When the shark was "monitoring the situation" and then consulted with cabinet to do some fact-finding, that was scary.

Parallel Universe: That's the reaction from cobloggers, who are amazed at how blithely Obama makes claims about a counterfactual alt-history.

RDBrewer giggles at these:

--"gas prices are important"

--earthquake in Japan is "potentially catastrophic"

--"economists like Warren Buffet" say we should expect strong job growth this year

--"we need to continue to increase production of oil and gas" (by issuing a single offshore permit)

--"we are encouraging offshore production" (Is he living in his own, private fantasy world?)

I get the feeling he views this conference as obligatory, and he's already trying to run out the clock. While laying a pretext ignoring/avoiding questions. (For pulling the rug out from under expected questions): "As I've already said, oil production is important. Next question." "As I mentioned previously, we're working to ensure America's energy future (whatever that means)" His statements create a potential rope-a-dope defense.

A combination of platitudes, falsehoods, and wishes that he won't back up with meaningful action (such as actually drilling for oil).

posted by Open Blogger at 12:16 PM

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