Was it the weather?

Chief White House correspondent Martha Raddatz blogs about today’s unexpected press conference: Maybe it was the weather. Maybe the President was just in a chatty mood, but whatever the reasons, an event in the Rose Garden today that the press assumed would amount to little more than a statement on the economy and maybe “a few questions” turned into a full blown press conference—without benefit of seats. Those of us who cover the White House for ABC News can’t remember the President having a Rose Garden briefing like this one. (At left, today’s press conference.)
The networks had not been alerted, so didn’t even consider taking the event live, and the press was behind the rope line, jostling for position among cameras. But the President clearly planned for more than a few questions. He had a list of reporters in front of him and read off the names. He even called one of the reporters on the list twice by accident. He talked about everything from immigration to whether the national anthem should be sung in Spanish. “I think the National Anthem ought to be sung in English. I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the National Anthem in English.” Of course, if the original intent was to highlight just the economy—that message now has a lot of competition.