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Obama’s Sep. 10 Press Conference — an opportunity? Shall we scrutinize both Obama and his cowering press toadies — and more?

By: ColdWarrior (Diary)  |  September 7th, 2010 at 07:57 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

President Obama will be without his teleprompter on September 10 when, we’ve been told by CNN, he will hold his next press conference.

This is Obama’s last chance, probably, to “step in it,” unscripted, without a teleprompter, before the Nov. 2 election. Well in advance of it. This provides conservative Republicans an opportunity, no?

Like all of you, I am appalled at the softball questions lobbed to Obama by the so-called journalists of the White House press corps.

I believe the people who write Obama’s teleprompter scripts will have the following strategy for this press conference:

First, have him read the longest possible teleprompter-delivered opening remarks. This burns up time that could otherwise be used to answer questions.

Second, for every question, give the longest answer possible. This limits the number of questions. You may recall the 17-minute, 2,500 word answer to a woman who asked him at a town hall meeting about being overtaxed. Even the Washington Post thought this odd enough to report on: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/04/obamas-17-minute-2500-word-res.html

Third, try to call on the “friendliest” members of the press corps. You know, someone like this “hard boiled journalist,” the New York Times’s Jeff Zeleny:

Fourth, anything else they can think of to burn up time so as to limit the number of questions. A power outtage? A fire drill? The White House air space restrictions are being violated?! Run for your lives!!!!

I’m not sure if any of you are inclined to attempt this, but it seems to me many of you have twittering and other social media skills that might be able to create a buzz among the so-called journalists in DC, and, I hope, actual members of the White House press corps, between now and Sep. 10, that they will be viewed as yet again carrying water for “their guy” Obama if they don’t do more than just throw softball questions to him and then accept whatever long-winded answers he gives without any followup. In other words, let them know that many, many in the blogosphere will be poised to write negatively about their timidity, cowardice and lack of journalistic standards.

I don’t know if it’s possible to nudge the White House press corps into actually doing their job a little, but if anyone can it do it, I would think it would be the good people here at Redstate. Also, I see little glimmers that some of the lefty “journalists” are getting a little frustrated with Obama. Over at HotAir there’s a story about Chrissie Matthews advising he-who-causes-tingles to jettison his teleprompter (http://hotair.com/archives/2010/09/02/matthews-say-perhaps-obama-relies-on-the-teleprompter-a-tad-too-much/) with this video

and then there’s one about Bill Plant asking the “where’s Waldo” question (http://hotair.com/archives/2010/09/02/wh-press-corps-wonders-why-obama-has-been-awol-while-dem-numbers-nosedive/):

Maybe we could start a thread at Redstate with a contest to come up with the best combination of hard question and softball question.

And then, during the press conference, maybe run a liveblog with a rating of each question asked and then, at the end, have the participants rate the questions, with a “Redstate award” for the hardest question and a “Journolist award” for the softest softball question.

We could also rate Opuppet’s answers.

Even if this project is not undertaken, I think we should all closely watch Opuppet’s performance and then try to get mileage out of anything that he says that might scare the heck out of voters enough to get them to the polls for the remaining September 14 primaries and the general election.

For Liberty,
ColdWarrior, PC (that’s “precinct committeeman,” not “political child!”)
Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW! (56 days until Nov. 2 — what are YOU DOING to help get out the vote in your precinct?)
———–
American first, conservative second, Republican precinct committeeman BY NECESSITY!

ThePrecinctProject, so you can say, “I became a precinct committeeman before it was cool.” Where it all started.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
- Edmund Burke

COMMENTS

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  • jannicc30

    Here are my five questions for Mr. Obama:

    1. Why are all of your birth and school records sealed?
    2. Do you believe the United States is exceptional?
    3. Why did you attend a church for 20 years where hatred of America is preached?
    4. Why do you send your children to private school?
    5. Though you are both “black” and “white”, why do you only see the world through the prism of being black?

    • jdw4america

      why are you such a racist? (snidely to his fans, he adds) Y’see how they are? Just like MY grandmother, typical white people.
      But anyway enough about that, I know these are not the things about ME that you need or want to know. I have a natural gift for knowing these things. In fact, Sasha asked ME just this morning, she said to me, “Daddy, why are you, an ambassador of peace, unity and hope, being maligned by the peasants, who are unworthy to speak your beloved name?”
      And I reminded her that although I am all those things and more, that America is a racist country, which I, and I alone have been called to save from her own evils. I reminded her that it is a big task for any man, but fortunately, I am not any man. I am the one I have been waiting for. Then I asked her to confirm my statements with MY wife, who is married to ME, and is her mother.”
      He then waves down the thunderous applause as many of the “journalists” wet themselves with excitement and concludes with,”I don’t mean to say that my dissenters are all intolerant, moronic, bible-reading, Constitution-believing goons because I know they are not. No, no, they are against ME because I’m so great, and they can’t stand MY greatness combined with the color of MY skin. And they should be thanking ME for being so great, by the way, but I don’t like to be petty…even though they deserve MY excellent scorn
      You know what I do like? I like those….”

      (No room here to continue what will doubtless be more verbal masturbation from our glorious windbag. Maybe I should apply as a speech writer for him, all you need really is to insert lots of “I”s, “Me”s and “My”s.

      Nah – I’d be fired in five minutes, I’d keep writing the following :

      I am an idiot. I am also clinically unstable, and I am totally incapable of handling the most inconsequential and tangential criticism. I also whine an awful lot. Please impeach me, for the sake of the country I despise.”

      Oh and lest anyone doubt that the man is a complete racist himself, he actually did refer to his grandmother as a typical white person. This is how he talks about the woman who cared for him and raised him after his mother dropped him in her lap. Sweet, no? Good thing she didn’t live to see it.”

    • mbecker908

      1. Every one of them is utterly stupid.
      2. The birth certificate is, and has been a dead issue, for a year and a half.
      3. What difference does his school records make. If he got straight “A” or barely passed our problems right now – and for the next two years at a minimum – are his policies NOT his grades or the classes he took.
      4. Your questions 2&3 have been asked and answered and you’ll get nothing more. Also 2&3 do not address policy issues.
      5. He sends his kids to private school because he can. And for the same reasons GWB, Clinton, Carter and Nixon did. And it doesn’t address policy issues.
      6. #5 question is so stupid it’s insulting to conservatives.

      You’re doing nothing but giving his policies cover with this stuff. It’s a close relative of impeaching him. We don’t want to do that either. We need to beat him on the issues and none of this crap even comes close. They are ALL rhetorical questions and a total waste of time.

    • paddy1999

      aint you being hypocritical, do you remember in the lead up to the iraq war? how come gwbush and his crew were not asked hard ball questions? how come rumsfield was not asked about his iraq picture with saddam? how come sarah palin is never asked any questions? i will ask your silly questions…

      1. its pretty stupid question….
      2. another stupid one
      3. that church preached about injustices done to american citizens by the government….that is nothing wrong with that…..read your history……even the recent history…..then you might understand.
      4. suddenly obama is the only leader or person to send children to private schools….? that is another illiterate question.
      5.did you forget the part that …for hundreds of years…if any person who was mixed…even with white was considered black…..and they were denied white priveledges…? you need to do more research…before writing.

      • Martin Knight

        Bush and his crew were asked hardball questions all the time during the lead up to the war. That’s why it took 13 months. And the MSM didn’t question the intelligence because every intelligence agency in the world and the members of the Congressional intelligence committees since the Clinton Administration had been saying the exact same thing.

        Newsflash dumb@$$; the world didn’t begin in 2001.

        PS: Palin is not going to release a video of her giving birth; Trig is her son – you’re just gonna have to accept it.

        As for your review.

          1. its pretty stupid question….

          It’s not inherently a stupid question, especially about his school records – every President has released them, why not him? And considering that McCain’s birth circumstances were all over the media … But it’s an irrelevant question, which makes it stupid.

          2. another stupid one

          True. Pointless question.

          3. that church preached about injustices done to american citizens by the government?.

          Nope, the church said “God damn the USA” and that America deserved the attacks on 9/11. Heck, even Obama himself condemned Rev. Wright on national TV. Don’t be such a sycophant. That said, another irrelevant question.

          4. suddenly obama is the only leader or person to send children to private schools?.?.

          Are you completely ignorant of the fact that he killed a program that allowed DC parents to opt for private schools if their kid’s public schools are not performing? If the public schools are so good that he will deny other children’s kids access out of them, why is he sending his kids to private school? Obama is a hypocrite.
          Again, irrelevant.

          5. did you forget the part that ?for hundreds of years?if any person who was mixed?even with white was considered black?..and they were denied white priveledges??

          So? Right now, Obama is the President of the United States, you don’t much more privileged than that.
          Again, irrelevant.

        In other words, you’re right: those were not reasonable questions. But your reasoning is stupid.

        • paddy1999

          are you will to put links on when bush and his crew were being asked tough questions? are you willing to put links on when sarah palin is being asked hardball questions? are you willing to put up links showing sarah palin answering about her policies and explaining them? i am willing to show you links where obama is being asked hardball questions…

          it took 13 months or what ever to start the war because hey were not ready yet, the army has to be in place, the allies had to agree, and we had troops we had to move from afghanistan who were going after the mass murderer bin ladin who was created during the reagan years , and we were going after another murderer who gases his own people during reagan years,( he was armed by reagan rumsfield chenney) even after he killed hundreds of thousands of his own people with chemical weapons. did the press ask cheney or rumsfield in his involvement? askin sarah palin about whether trig is her son or not is a stupid dumb thing, its the same as asking if obama is a moslem, or if he was born in america. just because someones name is jerry doesnt mean they are irish.
          the church might have said that…there is no evidence that obama was there, am not an appologist but some blacks like reverand wright have the right to feel that way considering what they have gone through in this country but there is no excuse doing it in reference to 911, pat robertson the right wing tv evangelist said something similiar….
          on the private school and public school issue, its been a debate way long before obama came to power. why did republican senators and house members vote against the new health bill while they are receiving government healthcare? isnt that being a hypocrite? you want children to have choice of private and public in school but you want to deny eveyones right to have option between public healthcare and public healthcare?

          off course its great that obama is the president, i think we are the best country, the most tolerant country and the least racist country in the world, the only problem i have with that is simple, you dont like blacks to bring up that history to defend their actions now , while you always are free to bring up your history without objection. by the way i dont fit in the republican party neither do i fit in the democratic party……..

          • Locked and Loaded

            Yes, I do want to be denied the “option between public healthcare and public healthcare.

      • Locked and Loaded
        • paddy1999

          if they call obama a communist then what would you call yourself trying to silence my opinion just because i differ from yours? something a dictator or a communist would do.

          • Locked and Loaded

            Neil is a good teacher that way.

          • eburke
  • GregInFla

    He can answer that in the past two years he’d aged 14 years.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    1. Is there anything wrong in this country that is NOT George Bush’s fault?
    2. Is it finally time yet to ‘pivot to the economy’, or is there still something else to do first?
    3. Is the end of combat operations in Iraq one of your greatest achievements, like Joe BiteMe says? If so, exactly how much harder than falling out of a bed did you actually work by ordering troops out of Iraq?
    4. When are you going to lift the moratorium on American oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico?
    5. Why did you not sue the state of Rhode Island, who has the exact same policy as that prescribed by Arizona SB 1070? And will you sue the 10 states or so that are about to enact the same law?
    6. What will you if your own party does a 25th Amendment job on you?

  • Martin Knight

    The questions have already been pre-screened and worked on between the pre-selected askers and the White House.

    This is all Kabuki.

    • mriggio

      get the pampered members of the WH press corpse to man-up and go off script; none of them will ask a career-deadening question, and even if lightening struck and one did, no follow-up would be entertained. Kabuki indeed, or High School Musical.

      Cheers!

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    the White House press corps toadies to burn up gobs of time lobbing softball questions to Opuppet about the possible burning (gasp!) of the Koran.

    http://www.mediaite.com/online/robert-gibbs-reveals-white-house-is-taking-koran-burning-event-very-seriously/

    As Gibbs “demurred on many details of how the President might specifically be involved with efforts to stop the planned burning, he did reveal that pretty much all options are on the table, including perhaps having Mr. Obama call Rev. Jones directly[,]” this means that the White House press toadies just will have to ask Opuppet about it. Which will mean one or two fewer questions about how our national debt now threatens our national sercurity, how Obamacare is “bending the cost curve up,” whether the U.S. will do anything about the Iranian nuclear weapons development or North Korea’s nukes, whether Opuppet is securing our borders, etc., etc., etc. No, lets burn up some time talking about the possible burning of a Koran.

    For Liberty,
    ColdWarrior, PC (that?s ?precinct committeeman,? not ?political child!?)
    Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW! (54 days until Nov. 2 — what are YOU DOING to help get out the vote in your precinct?)

    Please help GOTV!

    • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

      Oh Lordy, just heard on the radio the Florida pastor has canceled his public Koran-burning event. Nonetheless, will the White House press corps toadies lob softball questions to Opuppet about the subject tomorrow to help burn up time? My guess is they’ll ask at least one question and he’ll take credit, in a long-winded answer, for “leadership” on resolving this “crisis.”

      Snore.

      But wait — breaking news! — yet another pastor, one it Tennessee,, according to Sean Hannity, is now threatening to burn the Koran!

      Fearless Opuppet to the rescue! And, the White House press corps toadies will, no doubt, ask Opuppet questions, questions, questions about this continuing crisis!

      CW

      Please help GOTV!

  • jannicc30

    I’ve never been involved in politics before. When one possess nothing, one doesn’t care what goes on at the 30,000 foot level. Until I owned my own home, and paid my own taxes, I could have cared less what happened at the federal, state, and local government level.

    I do know some history, but not much about post World War II. I do know that I have never wronged any man, black, white, or otherwise; nor have the vast majority of the citizens of this country. To continue to be held accountable for the actions of my forefathers is akin to jailing a boy for a murder his grandfather committed 60 years ago.

    What I want is to be left alone to pursue my own interests and those of my family. No more regulations, no more laws, no more military excursions to parts unknown that I have to pay for.

    I’m an isolationist. I would prefer if Congress went on vacation until 2011, and if Obama went on vacation until 2013. Every day they spend in DC is anothe rday that I have to wonder what grand scheme they will cook up next to mess with me.

    I don’t want Obama and Congress to try to “fix” the economy. The economy will fix itself. I want them to unleash it by agreeing not to pass and more rules, laws, edicts, or fiats that cause present and future uncertainty.

    My questions for Obama would give me all the information I need to know if he is acting in my best interests, if he is hiding something, if he hates this country, if he is an elitist, and if he is a liar. Everything else stems from that.

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    Hat tip to Mediaite.

    “The military acted stupidly.”

    CW

    Please help GOTV! (GOTV is not a cable channel. Yet.)

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    Will the White House press corps toadies ask about this (from The Hill):

    Momentum built Thursday for extending all of the Bush-era tax cuts after President Obama avoided a veto threat and a key Senate Democrat voiced support for the extension.

    Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.), a centrist who has been a key vote on several Obama administration initiatives, said Thursday he supports extending all of the George W. Bush-era tax cuts until the economic recovery has taken root. Raising taxes on wealthier taxpayers could hurt the economy, he said.

    “I support extending all of the expiring tax cuts until Nebraska?s and the nation?s economy is in better shape, and perhaps longer, because raising taxes in a weak economy could impair recovery,” Nelson said in a statement Thursday.

    Earlier in the day, Obama refrained from promising to veto legislation that extends tax cuts not only for the middle class, but also for individuals with incomes of more than $200,000 and families with incomes of more than $250,000.

    Pressed on the issue during an interview on ABC?s ?Good Morning America,? Obama restated his opposition to extending low tax rates for wealthier taxpayers, but stopped well short of a veto threat.

    “What I am saying is that if we are going to add to our deficit by $35 billion, $95 billion, $100 billion, $700 billion, if that’s the Republican agenda, then I’ve got a whole bunch of better ways to spend that money,” he said.

    CW

    Please help GOTV!

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    Hey, it’s late!

  • http://www.theprecinctproject.wordpress.com ColdWarrior

    My vote would go to Chuck Todd: “How have you changed Washington?”

    This open-ended softball allowed Opuppet to drone on and on for about five minutes.

    Todd can argue, “Oh, no, really, it was meant to be a really, really HARD question because it put Obama on the spot and he’d have to actually come up with some real accomplishments. See how smart and devious and tough I am!”

    Nice try, Chuckie.

    Contrast Chuckie’s “hard hitting” question to those posed by ABC’s Jake Tapper. He asked two, but turned it into three:

    Thank you, Mr. President. A couple questions. First, were you concerned at all, when you ? when the administration had Secretary of Defense Gates call this pastor in Florida, that you were elevating somebody who is clearly from the fringe?

    And then, more substantively, on health-care reform, this is six months since health care passed. You pledged, A, that you would bend the cost curve, and B, that Democrats would be able to campaign on this. And CMS reported yesterday that the cost curve is actually bending up from, 6.1 percent to 6.3 percent, post-health-care legislation. And the only Democrats I?ve seen talking about health- care legislation are running TV ads saying that they voted against it.

    Thank you.

    http://ironicsurrealism.blogivists.com/2010/09/10/full-transcript-obama-press-conference-sept-10-2010/

    After answering the two questions, but failing to address Tapper’s observation that the only Democrats he had “seen talking about health-care legislation are running TV ads saying that they voted against it,’ Tapper jumped in and reminded him of that point and got this turned into a third question.

    At least one guy in the White House press corps seems to have at least a little bit of courage and seems to know how to do his job.

    Must be hard having to be around the toadies day after day.

    For Liberty,
    ColdWarrior, PC (that?s ?precinct committeeman,? not ?political child!?)
    Conservatives, UNITE! CHANGE the Republican Party and save the world by UNITING INSIDE the Party as precinct committeemen. NOW! (53 days until Nov. 2 — what are YOU DOING to help get out the vote in your precinct?)

    Please help GOTV!

    ———–
    American first, conservative second, Republican precinct committeeman BY NECESSITY!

    ThePrecinctProject, so you can say, ?I became a precinct committeeman before it was cool.? Where it all started.

    ?The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.?
    - Edmund Burke

  • Mary Beth

  • realskinny

    Certainly that dithering idiot who stood at the front of the room. He actually said the government would have to borrow money to pay $700 billion to millionaires if they didn’t raise their taxes. This makes less sense than Gracie Allen’s responses to George Burns, or Blondie demanding the $90.00 she had saved Dagwood by buying 3 $60.00 hats at half price.

    Everyday we are treated to talking heads discussing “extending the Bush tax cuts”. The “cuts” were in 2003. The current tax rates have been in place 7 years. That tax increases were written into law in 2002 doesn’t change the fact they are tax INCREASES. There is no cost to the government when they DO NOT raise taxes The only cost would be to those who PAY the taxes. Only in the Bizzarro World of Washington does no one object to such insane thinking. This is equivalent to my standing on the sidewalk and whining about having to come up with $50,000 because 1,000 people had walked by me and I hadn’t made each give me $50 for the privilege. My day on the sidewalk “cost” me 50 thousand….or 100 thousand if had charged $100…..Now it’ll cost me 50 thousand even if I do collect $50 because I might have charged $100. I’ll go bankrupt if I don’t get the hell off this sidewalk!

  • lukematthews

    Mr. President, since you’ve pumped over three trillion dollars into the economy, we’ve only seen the GDP rise by 300 billion. Where did the economic impact of the 2.7 trillion dollars go?