Closing Arguments: Grading the President & Press

WELL OF COURSE THE RIGHT QUESTION WASNT ANSWERED. HE SAID IT HIM SELF IT TOOK ME A COUPLE OF DAYS TO COME UP WITH THIS PRESS CONFERENCE. THEY ALREADY PREPARED THE QUESTIONS, SO I DIDNT REALLY LIKE, I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHERE ARE THE JOBS @? THANK YOU FROM A CONCERN BROKE COLLEGE STUDENT follow me on twitter. twitter.com/geturmindright

I think he answered the questions reasonably well, but the press conference came off focus. Until the economy is fixed, there is nothing else.
Only one congress member has reacted thus far:
http://www.congressional140.com

Funny how different people have totally different impressions.
To me, it was Bush who always seemed out of his league. Obama is so much better and more thoughtful during press conferences (so we’ll be seeing many more while he is president).
People forget how much of a failure Bush was considered before 9/11, almost as much as at the end of his presidency. They also forget how badly Bill Clinton screwed up early on (long before Monica).
And they both had far fewer major problems to deal with. It is early, and I don’t agree with everything his adminstration has done, but he is doing well so far.

Suzy, he’s been in off less then 2 months. Give him a break!!!
Why do you think the problems that have been building for years (if not over a decade) can be solved so quickly?
He is talking to the American people as if we’re adults, not scared little kids. And he’s not trying to frighten us as little kids to get his way. He knows there will be problems but he’s going to be honest about them.
If the previous administrations were as honest, we might not be in such the hole we are in now. I for one support him and will acknowledge that it is going to take years, not 100 days.
Wish the press would get off the first 100 day thing, that is so ridiculous.

Well now, it seems the media is finally getting the real man behind the media’s president. I’ll tell you this. I wasn’t impressed before (didn’t vote him in) and I’m not impressed now!! KNEW IT WAS GOING TO BE THIS WAY! He’s a suit.

I refused to watch this press conference this evening…but turned on CNN at 8pm and I watched hightlights. Wow…I couldn’t believe this guy swaggering towards the podium. I’m so suave and cool and you all love me…or better yet..”YOU’D BETTER LOVE ME!! OR ELSE!!

How do we look at our small children knowing this HUGE dept. is going to fall in their laps. I can’t look at my 4yr. old and not get sick to think it’s going to be on him to pay off this goofball’s climbing debt. Yeah…that’s right, we’ll let my friends and colleages off the hook, and YOU PEOPLE can pay it off!!

President Obama showed tonight as always his arrogance and how far over his head he truly is. It will be interesting to see how the media will respond to such a President in the days to follow. As now 50% of Americans are starting to see hope change is not happening for the better of America. Large government that is headed down the road to dangerous waters. The man I am sure is a nice man but purely out of his league. The sooner more Americans realize this the better for all of us
Posted by: Suzy | Mar 24, 2009 11:10:18 PM
You are correct, Suzy. Approx. 49% of the American people DID NOT vote for him, so we’re just getting what we knew was coming down the pike.

Geez, the man has been in office for all of 45 days and listen to all these screaming republicians slamming Obama. It took the last Bush 2 stolen presidency’s to run this country into the ground, humiliate this great country, embarassed any and all self respecting Americans every time he opened is arrogant, ignorant mouth and leave us in probably the worse world posturing we have ever been in.
Yet in just shy of 45 days look at all that has begun to transpire with and I’m not seeing much in the line of republican budget suggestions, oh wait aren’t they the guys that like to spend 700 times the going price of good?
Keep up the good work Obama at least someone has the werewithall to face the challenge.

I give President Obama an A++++++ for spelling out a PLAN!!!!!
ECONOMY!!!!
EDUCATION!!!!
HEALTH CARE!!!!
RENEWABLE ENGERY!!!!
It took us years to get into this MESS!!!
It will take us years to GET OUT!!!!

I keep hearing that you can’t rob from the rich and give to the poor. If this is true, why did it work for Robin Hood? Is Obama “Robin Hood”? Who is the sheriff, and who is the good king off fighting crusades who wasn’t taking care of his country, and letting all his people get robbed by bad leaders for decades?
No, Obama is not Robin Hood. That great leader would never have hoodwinked the peasants with promises of no new taxes and then implemented the “Sin Tax”.
It’s supposedly good business sense for the government and affluent people to take advantage of those with less. Those with less, have lesser due to increasing taxes, higher interest rates, inflation and so on. The rich keep finding ways to tack on more laws, rules, and conditions to protect themselves, with the help of the government.
Where is the Freedom that our Brave forefathers fought for?
I think it is time for many TEA PARTIES!

The President did very well, as he stated there is a lot to do moving forward and a lot to clean up.

George has always been too easy on Obama, and as for the press, well, I don’t feel it’s fair to ask George to grade them. He R them. Of course The Big O had a teleprompter – he probably knew 95% of the questions before-hand, or someone knew, and put up some talking head points. Jake Tapper’s question was great. CNN had a tough AIG question. As for the rest, did anyone catch the “Mallard Fillmore” comic today? Pretty much said it all. W had his problems, yes. Not one of our better presidents, but the man followed his heart most of the time. I’ll take country bumpkin over suave-and-too-smooth any ol’day.

I agree on the grades. I think President Obama is doing an excellent job. Even more impressive, he’s making himself accessible to the American people in an unprecedented way.
So many of the comments above reinforce an observation I’ve developed over the past eight years: what these individuals specialize in is incivility. And we see how well their politics work — we’re living the consequences of it now.

President Obama did a good job. It’s refreshing to see someone with an excellent command of the English language that knows what he is talking about. (Bush was an idiot by comparison!)
I also liked the way CNN’s Ed Henry was put in his place. Speaking of morons…
People need to chill out and give this new President some time to make accompishments. He has a lot of stuff on his place to correct after Bush destroyed the economy and the Nation. Before you place blame, remember that Obama inherited a lot of garbage! He didn’t cause this mess we’re in.
The economy will not recover until Obama removed U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. We could better spend all that money here in this country on our own people. Let those 2 countries destroy themselves. I don’t care what they do and if Cheney thinks he can do better, send his fat a** over there!

Obviously the Karen who just posted is not the previous Karen, so I’ll go by Karen L.

Same old socialist dodge and weave. The health care system is the cause for all the economic mess. Code for “I am going to give you socialized medicine if it kills me.”

President Obama is not his own man. He seems to be following all those that have more experience in fooling the American taxpayers. He’s already lied about the bonuses along with the other elected fools who wrote the bill. So far the government elect is not serving the people of this country only the crooks who are in charge are.

Grade President Obama: GRADE F
Bankrupting the country and selling it off to China and Japan and whoever else wants a billion at a time; is just a plan to disaster. As we are sliding down the slope, we are picking up speed and Mr. Obama is leading the way. He seems to think that all he has to do is call it change and it’s the right thing to do. God help us all.

I am tired of questions that only beg for partisan answers. And I am tired of partisan answers. We should be asking America – when will WE get a clue and start realizing we have to come together and support our President. We did it for Bush in spite of (many of us) being against the war. Wake up America. It’s Rodney King time.

I think Obama is a great speaker who speaks with forked tongue and avoids the real issues. People are hurting and don’t have time to wait when they are losing their homes. He really avoided the question about children and parents being homeless. Are we becoming a third world country or what? Why isn’t this a top priority to help the real Amercian people. Families should not have to resort to living in tents or on the streets. Why can’t the government provide shelter, how about all those closed military bases, perhaps, they could be set up to help house them and assist them to get back on their feet. Perhaps we need to bus them to Washington to set up their tents on the mall so Obama and Congress can see this issue first hand. I really think Obama needs to stay in Washington and quit traveling around doing his little town meetings. The campaining is over and it is now time for him to get down to serious business of getting people back to work so they can afford to support their families. If they wait too long we will be finding their starving bodies on the streets. The press really needs to ask him the really hard questions and quit letting him twisting his answers. He really does not answer anything. The hurting people of the US do not have time to wait.

He says we all have to pull together. Sorry, when he works to bar the criminal element from participating in the recovery I’ll have more faith and feel better about rubbing shoulders with the next guy to make it better. Stop trying to mix the flies into the the oatmeal. This will only happen again if the people responsible for this mess in the first place are not removed from the scenario. This includes Giethner and the rest of the wall street gang, AIG and the rest of the “Masters of the Universe” crowd, the politicians they bought as well. Sensationalism will not cloud the truth this time. Justice first then the economy. We’re not choking the double talk any longer. Go after the offshore accounts of those who caused the problem. balance the budget that way. I’ll eat beans for awhile if I see those guys in prison for the rest of their lives. Meanwhile, don’t tell me it’s going to take years to make things right when the money is at your finger tips, you just have to tap the people responsible. Who’s the government you or big business? Better decide soon.

I give the Presedent an A. Remember he has only been offce for 64 days and Inherited the mess the Republicans left.
Think how long it will take to get out sure not 64 days or even 1 year but a number of years.
Economy!
Education!
Health Care!
Renewable Energy!

I believe President Lincoln said, well done is better than well said. Don’t talk about justice, achieve justice. Break up the banks and the insurance companies. If they’re too big to fail, they’re too big to be honest. They’re too big to exist.

Have to give him an A+ for bs…came out in a great suit and stood in front of his teleprompter, to spout the “PARTY lINE” from the idiots in his Chicago-Clinton advisors. Take away the teleprompter and see how fast the eloquent speech turns to uhh and duh and but…
I’ll believe this rhetoric when I see and upsurge in fair housing prices, the job market returning to normal, and common sense restrictions being put on big business to prevent the abuses the American people have suffered at the hands of the Wall Street crooks.
Sorry…but I can’t help but having 0 confidence in an administration that allows one of its own advisers go on the national news and make a statement, and I quote, “Hey…we’ll try this and if it doesn’t work, we’ll try something else. After all, that’s the way Government works, trial and error.” that from the lips of one of his female financial advisers. I fear that we are seeing our government rush headlong down the road to total financial destruction.
Swagger and good stage presence do not a great PRESIDENT make!!!

The president is using this forum toinform the American prople good. The Bush administration has hadeight years to make this mess. Gine him a chance

A+
Obama schooled the knucklehead Repubs once again and showed everyone what a real American PRESIDENT looks like.
HOORAY OBAMA!!!

As far as G.Stephy’s concerned, I have to feel sorry for him. Living with just one lingering scent his whole life has to be rough. If coffee didn’t smell like coffee, I couldn’t drink it.

Bush is gone thank God. Obama has a mess. At least he keeps talking to us. Look at Senate and Congress, they are our real enemies. What have the Republicans proposed to help us? We are in a mess, give they guy a chance to try to change things, a country is as good as its leader, at least we have one now. The last 8 years we did not.

– shocking to see how the TOTUS followers absolutely refuse to find any fault with this man.
– I have openly criticized EVERY politician I have voted for. Nobody is perfect, they all have to be accountable. yet the TOTUS supporters see him as PERFECT, a messiah, like you think it is a sin to criticize him!
– This man has already lied to you numerous times, how long will you be faithful to him, when he hasn’t been faithful to you?
– “Acceissble”? Hello? this admin is the least transparent in history! The reporters were preselected! He hides his records, he won’t even release his medical records!
– How many times must he betray you before you understand? How long must he be in office before you stop blaming Bush? TOTUS’s approval ratings are now lower than Bush’s was at this time in his admin!

F just awful..Obama is so slimy

HORRIBLE!!!!! Terribly disappointing.
Since I clearly understand the issues we are facing, Obama was disingenuous at best, but evasive and downright dishonest too often. He totally lied when he said they did not have the means to prevent the AIG bonuses, when we all know the provision blocking them was removed in the closed meeting between the White House and Senate/House Democratic leaders. He neglects to say he is increasing US debt 10 fold, but only stresses he plans to cut debt in half. The list is endless. Not one question from a true business reporter! So many things unasked. Taking over any private business when THEY decide it is needed to help the economy—what the heck is that?! Pity the 20 year olds, their children, and their children’s children for they will all spend their entire lives in servitude to the government to pay off this debt. But the moronic Senators and Reps will continue getting their yearly pay increases, elaborate healthcare, and luxurious pensions also paid by them. SPEND! SPEND! SPEND! We’ll PAY! PAY! PAY!

The problem our country will have to face in geetting past our crisis is realizing most Americans hate intelligent people. THe press and other experts can’t stand the fact that they are out of their league intellectually with the President. I’ve seen many comments calling the President stupid. That IS stupid. It goes to prove that 60% of our high school graduates are not ready for college and need remedial education and that we are way down on the scale of academic readiness as compared with other developed nations.
The people that call Obama stupid must have been totally out of it when Bush was President. They simply can’t understand what it means to have the academic credentials the President has and be stupid. You naysayers are just shills for the conservative megaphones of negativism and spew your’obviously ill informed wisdom that does nothing except swell your’empty heads with delusions of accomplishment.
Instead of spouting useless illiteracy try going to work and make something positive out of your’misery.
I.m realyy appaled with all you por whiners who just bitch,bitch ,bitch-how can a country regain its’ footing with so many pitiful little losers around.
However, I must say, I never seen such sad people and hear so much griping where I do my business, so maybe you are just professional online jerks who slither through life under cover of the internet. I’ll go do something posive and let you writh in misery with your’ imaginary incisive mental acumen.

C minus…easy to see the questions and answers were planned in advance. Cannot answer why so many key posts are vacant. 16 of 18 treasury posts vacant and without candidates. cannot claim open and honest when his choices cannot get vetted.

The only way to truly fix the economy is to help business, forget all the other junk. But of course that doesn’t fit in with the liberal agenda. Auto parts driver

I love this President…So he gets an A+
I did notice that he seem to read straight from the teleprompter at first, and that doesn’t bother me…as these were things I have heard and understand as our agenda…
I thought the questions were good and I like that he took the time to explain his answers…I liked the stem cell explanation, I could see his struggle with all the implications that go with it but, ended, that it was the right thing to do…
The question of homeless parents with children, I thought was fair because creating new jobs will help parents of these children anything else is simply a hand out not a hand up…plus the Recovery Plan addresses issues of unemployment… Especially, I thought it good that he addressed the issue of the homeless vet. which is a true disgrace.
As far as the Bugdet…I agree with his long term assessments… With the mess we are in we really cannot afford to simply think of what will fix the economy in the short term… we need to also plan for the long term…
It is refreshing to finally have a President that is intelligent, progressive and forward thinking…
I like it, that’s what I voted for and for 60+ days, I like the direction the President wants to take us in…
I know there are those that criticize his every word and deed…and they seem to do so, very loudly and very hatefully and I feel sad for them…
It is so very easy to criticize…
It is an entirely different matter to offer up constructive thoughts that the President can actually use that will benefit all of us…
This President has asked for ideas and opinions of the people, I wonder how many have actually contributed instead of just criticized…

The president did a very good job answering the questions posed to him. The press also did their job well. I didn’t support the president during the election but I’ve decided to give him time to prove his worth. Like the old saying goes, “The proof is in the pudding.” Only time will tell if we have been lead in the right direction or down the path of destruction. God Bless America!

he was average…I think he provided good answers on much of the “economy” questions – I don’t agree with them, but he answered them well. Two exceptions, though. He didn’t adequately answer questions on the increasing debt and his answer to the growing support for a global currency was lacking. The issue of a global currency is a huge one – the fact that the world uses our dollar for most global trading (oil, for example) is keeping us a major player. Once we lose that, we are done for. We are a consumer nation, not a producer. He dismissed this issue too quickly – my guess is that he dismissed it because he doesn’t understand it and wasn’t given the “talking points” on it prior to the press conference.

It’s great to see a President who isn’t afraid to give a press conference like bush was. People just need to realize that it will take a couple years to clean up the HUGE mess created over the last 8 years.

Well looks like the middle class tax cuts are gone. I can’t believe such a compassionate democrat would want to lower tax deductions for charitable giving?

I wonder why the journalist are pre-selected for questions. I noticed the President had a list.

Why does one need a teleprompter at a news conference? Obama still feigns outrage regarding AIG even though the Whitehouse was involved in saving the bonuses. Obama was irritated at Henry because he asked a question O. didn’t like. I could see the anger? Why have a news conference if you want a love fest? He should ditch the list he uses to call on journalists. It has the appearance of favoritism. Congress shouldn’t give away any of their responsibility to the President. I think his grade by George was too generous.

When listen to the news conference last night I was wanting to here what he was doing about the more jobs. Since I am a recent college graduate with my loans going due, I need to know when businesses are going to stop their hiring freeze, not just for me but my kids are about to graduate from college also.
The questions that needed to be answered for the general public where not. This didn’t make feel more secure about the economy.

Obama is undoubtedly charismatic. But that does not mean he knows what he is doing. He just likes to look as if he does. Is it just a coincidece that he does not miss an opportunity to market himself.. i.e. Tonight Show? The American people really need to inform themselves of what he is doing. Not just enjoy his commercials… otherwise known as press conferences.. He is more show than substance. I rate him an “F”.

I can’t see how George would give any other grades, considering what he’s done for a living the last 16 years. He’s just another lackey for the Democrats. The questions were softballs, lobed in under hand, with equally soft answers. Nobody asked how Obama and the Democrats are going to pay for all these projects, much less bring back some sanity to our deficits. Do they even care that their deficits will equal all the Presidents before them, combined? Do they care, that their policies have never worked before? Can hyper-inflation be too far in the future? Are they all insane, or is this part of the plan, to bring the U.S. to one global monetary system?

Can’t imagine that telling my boss that I inherited a mess would go over too well in terms of keeping a job. It just seems that the government is trying to grow a sinking ship instead of just stabilizing it enough to give people the confidence to use their entrepreneurial spirit.

I know why Obama wants to bring the troops home. Our troops fight for a free America, we will no longer be free under his leadership. He is taking everything away from us and he hasn’t given a thing to unemployment. I haven’t seen a cent and I’m unemployed. He isn’t giving a thing to anyone in need. I have worked most of my life in the environmental field with 12 years experience, but my unemployment has run out. Now he’s going to control the automobile industry. What’s next!

I give President Obama ‘B’. He hasn’t found his ‘sea legs’ yet but considering the garbage Bushmen left in the White House I certainly wouldn’t wish his job on anyone! I am pleasantly surprised. It’s disappointing to hear the hate-filled Republicans mouthing- off with such limited vocabulary. Thanx for showing US how a Republican thinks. Crazy. What’s the deal with the teleprompter? Bush never spoke from his heart – he always read his speech with his head down – a speech that someone else was paid to write for him because he can’t think on his feet. Obama’s doing sooo much better than Bushmen. The media? Well, that’s a different question – Geo. is splendid as always but – why are there so many Republicans getting paid MILLIONS of dollars to make defamatory public remarks about Democracy? It seems to me they have crossed the line – well beyond simply sharing an opinion but more like brain-washing … Karl Rove? Rush Limbaugh? Ann Coulter? And so on … there are others – many, many others. That’s one of the huge differences between US and them … their discussions center around their hatred of US who think differently while we discuss solutions to problems. You know ‘Republican’ is the modern name for the Tory Party don’t you? Their grandfathers fought against US. That’s right. Read history. Their brain-washing techniques have been very effective – although they still had to rely on corrupt behavior to take-over the Presidency the last two terms: 1- by holding vote-counters at gunpoint and 2- hacking into the election machine software … why were there sooo many people in Ohio and Michigan saying they voted for Kerry but the machine said they voted for Bush? That story was hushed up very quickly. Geo. has balls. Go George. Go Timothy Geithner. Go Democracy. Go Hillary. Go Bill, Al, Ed. Go Obama. Bet the Republican Party wishes these guys were on their team. Who do they have? No one … no one really. Because of the Democratic Team, these problems: a crashed economy, no jobs, climate problems, health care, corrupt financiers,secret bank accounts, will be solved. We will become a better country because of the gross negligence of the Republican Party members. Thanx guys.