"I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it,"Obama spokesman Jay Carney on Wednesday, from the White House press room:
Carney expressed confidence on behalf of the White House that "we will get an agreement" - and that concerns about Social Security checks would be null.Panetta must be relieved to have the gaffe pressure off him. Wonder if the White House saw this hearing?
"Our position, the president's position, has always been that we will not get to that point because Congress will do the right thing," he said.
Anyway, as the mainstream press reported this evening, the whole is getting stressful for the O and he reportedly stormed out of today's meeting, or walked out, or strolled out whistling (depending on the anonymous source used), threatening Cantor he would "take it to the people". Isn't that what his Social Security threat was all about? And hey, what happened to Boehner?
The One also reportedly dropped Reagan's name in the process, bringing to mind the Reykjavik talks where Reagan walked out on Gorbachev and the Soviets. Who knows, maybe Obama thinks of the GOP as the evil empire. Or worse--he came to his negotiating table with an attitude and a lot of pre-conditions, something he promised he would never do when meeting with America's real enemies.
Speaking of the White House press corpse, apparently some of their gut instincts are finally coming to the surface. Obama has been getting away with murder for years in just every one of his pressers because the reporters have been prevented from shouting questions. Dealing with this type of interview prevents the respondent (him) from taking one question and filibustering for five minutes to eat up clock. He also allegedly has a computer screen in the podium where clarifications can be beamed, which is harder to deal with when the pace is fast.
The hand-picked structured format also discourages follow up questions, which are often more important than the initial question because they address the answer. Obama is very skilled in maneuvering around in this format and frankly, it's not his fault, it's the press' fault for tolerating it. They could 'take it to the people' if they really wanted to, making America more free, but of course that might risk being kicked out of the pool or having their book access restricted. So they don't. Besides, most still agree with him.
2 comments:
Cowards are becoming fashionable at almost every level these days. I shudder to think what any of these people would be doing if Obama manufactured a crisis and instituted martial law. I'm sure they would say it's for the good of the country.
Meanwhile if this was W, the press would be having strokes and cerebral hemorrhages daily.
As to the press, I think when Carney made the crack about not shouting questions it actually struck a deep unused journalism bone in some of them and they reacted like a poked dog. Their ideology is still the same as Obama but they don't like their profession being dissed. If the same happened under Bush they would be able to go after him with professional outrage AND ideology, but with Obama only one of those emotions is in play. So nothing really changes.
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