This exchange between Jake Tapper, ABC Senior White House Correspondent, and Jay Carney, White House Press Secretary is, bluntly, bizarre.
For context: Jake is asking Carney about, naturally enough, the situation with the nuclear reactor problem in Japan. Specifically, the most recent details about the nuclear reactor problem, given that both the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Japanese government are both keeping mum on the subject. The standard procedure for a Press Secretary who doesn’t have the answer to a question like that? “Well, Jake, that’s a good question and I’ll get back to you on that.” Which is a weasel, but it’s a successful weasel because that’s also the answer that you give when you really don’t know the answer.
Carney went… elsewhere.
CARNEY: Well, it is clearly a crisis. There is clearly –
TAPPER: We know it’s a crisis, we know it’s deteriorating, but what specifically is going on?
CARNEY: And — well, again, I’m standing here at the White House. I think you have reporters in Japan. You have reporters, including ones here, who could get the technical detailed information on what we know from the NRC, from the Department of Energy.
TAPPER: We should rely on the media and not the government?
The rest is Carney answering “No” because answering “Yes” would probably get him fired; despite the fact that “Yes” was clearly the implicit answer that Jake was supposed to accept without question. But maybe that’s just part of the new style of things? After all, who should really expect the President or his staff to be on top of anything besides the broad outlines that one finds in a speech?
…as though just simply giving speeches is enough to prove her qualifications – speeches written by speechwriters. She’s obviously gives a great speech, but she’s going to have to I think at some point, I think the American people are going to want her to show that she’s capable of answering these questions.
Well, besides Jay Carney, of course.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
Moe Lane
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
Jeff Emanuel
This guy's even more fun than Bagdad Bob Gibbs. nt
Vegas_Rick (Diary) Wednesday, March 16th at 9:17PM EDT (link)“God is great, beer is good and people are crazy.”- Billy Currington
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” Calvin Coolidge.
I agree
hungarianfalcon (Diary) Wednesday, March 16th at 10:02PM EDT (link)Frankly, I thought Carney was going to be a good fit based on what I recalled of him back when he made the talk show rounds several years ago. But I retract that in total. He must be a stay at home dad because his brains seem to have really gone to mush in the interim (apologies for the moms in the crowd but I’m guessing many of you know what I’m getting at). Baby talk 24-7 will do that. Oh well, another failing spokesperson for the bad guys. Too bad.
HF
Stay-at-home dads' brains turn to mush?
Moe Lane (Diary) Wednesday, March 16th at 10:09PM EDT (link)What a fascinating statement.
The Kim Kardashian of blogging.
Check out my blog at http://moelane.com/.
http://moelane.com/filthy-lucre-filthy-lucre/
http://twitter.com/moelane
My (combined) wish list.
To explain it further
hungarianfalcon (Diary) Wednesday, March 16th at 10:18PM EDT (link)Sort of a running joke in the circles I travel. I’ve got several professional friends with formerly professional spouses or relatives (mostly wives) that once they decided to stay home, they weren’t really the same with regards to their former professional craft – they lost that edge. A couple of the guys are pretty adamant that motherhood turned their wive’s/relatives’ brains to mush compared to their former selves.
That’s what I’m saying about Carney since he’s seemed to be out of the limelight for a while. Definitely not a compliment.
I’d also add that there are plenty of stay-at-home parents I know that never missed a step, lest some lurkers out there get too worked up.
HF
Watch your step, falcon. -nt-
Christine (Diary) Wednesday, March 16th at 11:09PM EDT (link)The primary process is FLAWED. Two states should not decide our candidate.
“I would be a poor Commander in Chief”
– Barack Obama, July 3 2008
You're no fun. :) nt
Moe Lane (Diary) Wednesday, March 16th at 11:40PM EDT (link)NT
The Kim Kardashian of blogging.
Check out my blog at http://moelane.com/.
http://moelane.com/filthy-lucre-filthy-lucre/
http://twitter.com/moelane
My (combined) wish list.
nice circles...
Justin Spagnolo (Diary) Wednesday, March 16th at 11:43PM EDT (link)say i bet you all like to point loaded weapons at each other too… you know, ‘just fer fun’.
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. “ -James Madison
Lighten up
hungarianfalcon (Diary) Thursday, March 17th at 9:04PM EDT (link)Don’t you have a baby to feed? Or is that just when your wife is at work during the day? dws.
HF
hilarious.
Justin Spagnolo (Diary) Thursday, March 17th at 10:22PM EDT (link)you may want to ask Moe sometime why he thought your comment was “fascinating“.
oh the irony…
To recap:
1. You suggest that stay at home parents generally have their brains turn to “mush”.
2. You assumed we wouldn’t get your inside joke until you had a chance to explain it, but caveat included you surely didn’t mean *all stay at home parents ‘lest there be lurkers that get worked up’ (which is code for, ‘i know i might catch hell for this’).
3. You inadvertently stuck your foot in your mouth while explaining your comment to both a “Stay at home dad” and a site moderator…
4. I make a rather witty pun regarding you and your friends (granted witty may be subjective, but this is my comment)
5. Then you follow up with what appeared to be a rather pointed remark regarding the supposed indignity of feeding a baby.
and all that is fine with me…
6. but then you brought my wife into it… so now none of this is funny…
because you see, in my circle of friends we respect our spouses, and recognize the need to work together with our spouses to raise our children, its called parenting.
You should also know that my wife works hard being a stay at home mom, she happened to be a tenured elementary school teacher before we got married, she chose to stay home from her profession when our first daughter was born, and I dare say there are many stay at home parents in this community that might educate you on just how sharp a brain should be to be successful at parenting these days…let alone being a homemaker or a work from home parent…
So what you’re an educated analyst, top of your field, 3rd highest ranked school at the time…. blah blah blah…
So I’ll take your admonition to “lighten up” dripping with sarcasm… IF you take my admonition to take a bite of that double scoop of STHU.
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. “ -James Madison
Didn't think I'd ever miss Gibbs
TNJim (Diary) Thursday, March 17th at 12:46AM EDT (link)but I guess I’m wrong. This Carney guy takes Amateur Hour to a whole new level. Too bad Major Garrett’s no longer with Fox, not that Carney would ever call on him.
Not to Defend Carney
ehosterman (Diary) Wednesday, March 16th at 11:17PM EDT (link)because the White House is clearly amateur hour, but I used to be a technical spokesperson for a utility. Even during large scale drills, it was very difficult to get timely information. Given that the situation at the Japanese plants seems to change hourly and most of the data is taken from quite a distance and extrapolated, I can see why he wouldn’t have a complete story.
Agree
donnybrooke Wednesday, March 16th at 11:48PM EDT (link)I don’t expect the White House Press Secretary to know what’s going on at a Japanese nuclear plant, besides that there is an emergency.
Getting information out of a tsunami ravaged area is bad enough, much less exact details.
Perhaps we could drop some reporters into the plant by helicopter?
Any volunteers? ^_^
“Journalists were never intended to be the cheerleaders of a society, the conductors of applause, the sycophants. Tragically, that is their assigned role in authoritarian societies, but not here — not yet.”
– Chet Huntley -
If we don't know, we don't know
mustango (Diary) Thursday, March 17th at 12:36AM EDT (link)…but at least be upfront about why!
Carney effectively left everyone with the impression that the press is better informed about what’s going on in Japan than the White House is. Whether or not that’s actually the case, that’s really an inexcusable lapse.
“I just miss — I miss being anonymous.” — Barack Obama
I fully sympathize, Mr. President. I miss you being anonymous too.
That is True
donnybrooke Thursday, March 17th at 1:05AM EDT (link)Carney blew his chance to say “I’m not qualified to answer that question”, but even if Carney had given out facts and figures, I doubt the news media would believe them. They have their own agenda.
The press is better informed about what is going on in Japan than the White House. Just ask them. They have to report on it all day, facts or no facts.
Carney was just another deer in the MSM’s 18-wheeler headlights of nuclear accident meltdown catastrophe trucking. Don’t get in it’s way.
“Journalists were never intended to be the cheerleaders of a society, the conductors of applause, the sycophants. Tragically, that is their assigned role in authoritarian societies, but not here — not yet.”
– Chet Huntley -
Consider
DefendUSA (Diary) Thursday, March 17th at 9:19AM EDT (link)As Streiff pointed out in another blog that politicians are held to a higher standard. So too should the freaking WH Presser dude know his stuff before he gets to that podium– and that would include supposition of the questions that might be asked.
President Pied Piper is no better. Last week when he gave that speech, I cringed as he fumbled to make himself sound knowledgeable. He.just. isn’t.
I could have answered Tapper with aplomb because I am damn sure I know more than Carney. I use the english sites of TEPCO, Japan Times. I also frequent NISA, NEI, and the MIT NSE hub.
*starred thought*
To be a leader is to do the uncomfortable thing. Man up, Mr. President.
He's got one of the hardest jobs in the world
Finrod (Diary) Wednesday, March 16th at 11:54PM EDT (link)Granted, even in the best of times being White House Press Secretary is not an easy job; Presidents are always receiving a lot of flak from various directions and their job is to be the flakdeflector.
But Carney has a tougher job than that; not only does he have to deflect the flak, he has to try to maintain the illusion that the flak doesn’t even exist since this White House must always be seen as Being Above It All.
PETA and the ASPCA are pure evil. See here and here.
Sorta like being the royal compost farmer
aesthete (Diary) Thursday, March 17th at 12:34AM EDT (link)and having to pretend that the king’s crap don’t smell, huh?
“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
-P.J. O’Rourke
The question was clearly above Carney's pay grade,
Melody Warbington (rwm52) (Diary) Thursday, March 17th at 1:11AM EDT (link)just like everything else asked of the White House.
The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh (he that is called Christ): when he is come, he will declare unto us all things. (John 4:25)
But of course..
dmartin Thursday, March 17th at 9:14AM EDT (link)TAPPER: We should rely on the media and not the government?
Because we have all been trained to rely on the government as the universal first resort.
From the land of freedom and opportunity, to a nation of dependent’s
Carney is a perfect proxy
eddiethegeek Thursday, March 17th at 9:32AM EDT (link)Carney is a perfect proxy for his boss. This interchange with Tapper in the very definition of transparency – if his boss were in the room, he would have come across as knowing nothing either.
Of course there are much more urgent matters to attend to, like your NCAA picks and packing for your sojourn to Rio, not to mention squeezing in a round of golf.
Nero is not happy, since after this guy’s performance, his fiddling will have been forgotten.
Are we witnessing the MSM setting aside the Kool-Aid?
yoyo (Diary) Thursday, March 17th at 10:57AM EDT (link)Where are the softballs? Where are the easy questions with easy answers that gives the petina of “omniscience” for the administration?
This is 2011, yes? Less than two years until the General Election for the One? What is the MSM thinking?
(Full disclosure – I do LIKE what they are doing. I like it a lot!)
Nemo me impune lacesset
“No one will provoke me with impunity!”
=============================
Pukin’ Dogs – The Fighting 143
Sans Reproache
=============================
The ‘yoyo’ replaced my cigarettes January 22, 2006….
The definition of a gaffe
petrarch Thursday, March 17th at 11:24AM EDT (link)Of course the news media have more people on the ground in Japan, and thus more information on what’s going on there. That’s kind of their job. It would be absurd to expect the government to know more than they, about a highly dynamic and rapidly changing situation in a major disaster area when even the Japanese themselves aren’t entirely sure what’s going on.
Tapper just got in trouble for accidentally telling the truth.
Scragged – Conservative Online Opinion Magazine