Obama Avoids Tough Questions
Yesterday, President Obama held a town hall at Facebook offices in California. People were allowed to submit questions via Facebook but every question I heard came from a Facebook employee. Maybe the submitted questions were too harsh. In any case, at one point someone asked him what his biggest mistake was. I'll let Byron York of the Washington Examiner take it from here:
Seven years ago, in April 2004, President George W. Bush held a formal news conference in which he was asked, "What would your biggest mistake be…and what lessons have you learned from it?" Bush's hemming and hawing answer -- in several minutes of flailing about, he never managed to come up with a single mistake to cite -- was widely criticized in the days that followed.
On Wednesday, President Obama held a town hall at the headquarters of Facebook in Palo Alto, California, during which he was asked, "If you had to do anything differently during your first four years, what would it be?" Obama, it turns out, is no better at analyzing his own missteps than Bush.
The president began his response haltingly, pointing out that he has actually been in office just two and a half years, and "I'm sure I'll make more mistakes in the next year and a half." But what mistakes has he already made? "There are all sorts of day-to-day issues where I say to myself, oh, I didn't say that right, or I didn't explain this clearly enough," Obama said, "or maybe if I had sequenced this plan first as opposed to that one, maybe it would have gotten done quicker."
But the president mentioned no actual mistakes.
That's true, but he did manage to spend a lot of time not answering. Remember earlier in the week when a prickly President Obama told a local news reporter to let him fully finish answering each question? Let's hope that other reporters aren't bullied into letting him ramble for 10 minutes before not answering each question!
Okay, the response by the media to Bush's handling of the question was prolonged mockery and outrage. And to Obama's? Are those crickets I hear? Is that a tumbleweed I see?
- Comment (6)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (2)
Comments :
Aug '10
Re: Obama Avoids Tough Questions
So much evidence has built up in these 2.4 years, that these people are incompetent, petulant and above all, determined. I don't think we can hope that this will change at all. This morning I sent just the "like" quotes from Obama's pathetic riffs on Oval Office telephones ("I'm like, where are all the cool phones and stuff?") My brother has been on a crusade against "like" for as long as I can remember, yet his humorless response to me was, "You cannot be objective about these things."
We must forge on ahead, and recognize that our "opponents" will probably never get it. Something is keeping them from it -- I can only think the thought of being allied with other than the elitest of the elite just freaks them out too much.
Edited on Apr 21, 2011 at 7:05amNov '10
Re: Obama Avoids Tough Questions
I knew at the time what Bush’s answer should have been. He could have fired back,
“Well, you know I said I was going to bring a new tone to politics in Washington. I now know that is not remotely possible and I marvel at what a mistake in judgment I made in thinking the Democrats and their media mavens wanted or would accept any overtures from me to establish a higher degree of civility in this town.”
And here is the answer Obama should have given yesterday:
“Well, you know I came to this town full of hope that I could remake America in an image all my own, following Alinski’s Rule for Radicals. I made a mistake in thinking the American people were pretty stupid and largely disengaged from politics so that I could easily get away with it. But I was mistaken in thinking I’d have no opposition, and that really, really makes me angry. Not at my mistake, but at all you dumb clucks out there in America who dare to try and stop me. I will never give up on this quest, I promise. You, all of you, should get ready."
Jul '10
Re: Obama Avoids Tough Questions
"I left the putt short on hole 12 to bogey."
Jan '11
Re: Obama Avoids Tough Questions
The crime here is the media's.
Once you assert the right to hold politicians accountable, then attack one party but shield the other, you lose the right to be taken seriously.
I've always contended that the media has the exact same right of free speech as the rest of us. No less, but no more. No shield law. No right to publish classified documents. Certainly no right to "conduct" the public conversation. And if ever asked, the astounding bias is why.
Mar '11
Re: Obama Avoids Tough Questions
TeeJaw:
You should be assigned to TOTUS - Mr Obama, the eloquent One, seems unable to speak extemporaneously.
The One mistake was the American Electorate's - it kinda shook my confidence in our collective wisdom, and that of the Republican party in choosing the best candidate to oppose the One.
Tucker Carlson and Pat Caddell are still depressing me, from their respective podcasts.
Jul '10
Re: Obama Avoids Tough Questions
Dubya was too rattled and tongue-tied to come up with anything done wrong. Then there was the general cluelessness. "You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie" as the FEMA director slunk alongside in shame. Obama is another case altogether. The bubble of narcissism he has always lived in has been made worse by White House isolation. There he is surrounded by a court of mediocrities and flatterers, and just beyond them is a swooning MSM ready to explain away or just ignore his missteps. If a judgment is wrong or a policy ill founded, it was because of a failure to communicate with the needed clarity -- looking into the mirror he reminds himself not everyone is as smart -- or the fault of the previous administration. What Obama understands supremely well is this is a culture with a short memory. Today's staggering failure or fresh evidence of loss of power and influence in the world will be forgotten tomorrow. A new Octomom will hit the news or Charlie Sheehan will do something.