Obama tried to kill two birds with one stone today. He has been accused of not listening to the GOP's ideas, so he had a meeting with their leadership today. He's also been accused of not meeting the White House press corpse of late, so he met them to discuss meeting the GOP. His theme--"transcending petty politics".
Good deal. Maybe he's starting to listen to Rahmbo. Tacking right could inject some stability into the business climate and allow expansion. Coupled with some targeted tax cuts it might save our investments, the economy, and his presidency to boot.
But if he's really serious about transcending petty politics why send Gibbs out to mock Palin at the outset? If the purpose is important shouldn't Gibbs be spending more time with the family soon?
As to the actual presser, they showed they weren't missed. Not one question about terrorism, this after his deputy NSA all but called GOP'ers treasonous for complaining about Abdulmichelob. Or did it chill the air? Here's Brennan:
Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill. They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community. And the notion that America's counterterrorism professionals and America's system of justice are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd.Nice strawman; nobody is saying we shouldn't use all our tools, just that the administration was all over the map and lied, and it still took about a month to get anything, and they might have made a plea deal.
That's why it would have been nice had somebody asked Obama to explain the reason he's trying the Cole bombers in a commission if Article III courts are so wonderful. Or how KSM can get a fair trial after the POTUS and his subordinates have already proclaimed him guilty in the press and sentenced him to meet judgment with Allah soon.
Obama even played with them at the end, asking for one more, which was again about health care, so he broke down and took one more, which was on jobs. All pretty much softballs with typical filibluster answers. It was so tame he ended with:
All right? Thank you, guys. That was pretty good, thanks.A solid B+, maybe? Did that also include Gibbs' opening act hand puppet?














