Nov 8, 2008 8:54am
Obama Meets the Press
EmailOur "World News" report on President-elect Obama’s first press conference:
And a longer look from Nightline, complete with some footage from 2005 of Obama roasting his new chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill.:
- jpt
Sen. DeMint: GOP Race Could Go Until Convention 
Obama Avoids Questions on Contraception Rule
I predict he will have about 1000 of these conferences and numerous of statements of corrections (e.g. Nancy appology, no change in US Iran stance) and promises broken.
Posted by: young_voter | November 8, 2008, 9:12 am 9:12 am
young_voter
Why are you so negative?
Posted by: Ken | November 8, 2008, 9:29 am 9:29 am
Ken, forgive young_voter …
He/she needs a few days to let go of some of the pangs of defeat they might be feeling right now …
Posted by: Blogger | November 8, 2008, 9:37 am 9:37 am
young_voter,
did you predict how big a mess-up george bush would be?
we all know you don’t like obama
but as he said, even though you don’t like him and didn’t vote for him,
obama will be your president too.
and anything good he does for this country you will benefit from it too.
even if you never admit it.
i will thank him for you,
is the reason you are so negative, is because you believed so much in bush,
and he let you down to, just like he let the rest of the world down.
Posted by: one planet, one people, please | November 8, 2008, 9:37 am 9:37 am
Barak Obama’s first press conference was a disaster. I was expecting something much better. He fails to realize the magnitude of the economic problem. He fails to understand the root problem of the financial mess and obviously cannot fix it. Creating jobs is not fixing the problem it is fixing one symptom. His economic team inadequate, getting advice from Eric Schmidt (google’s CEO) is ridiculous, he knows nothing about fixing an economic crisis, it is embarassing to see the president elect getting advice from programmers and investors and other useless people. Most of his his financial advisory team are equally useless, He should stop thinking like a typical politician and start finding ways to fix the biggest problem in the history of the USA. Fix the big problems in a big way and the symptoms will cure themselves. Someone please get his message to Obama before it is too late. I had great hopes for Obama, now I think he is just another useless politician. He seems to be forgetting that he no longer needs to say what the voters want to hear, it is time to start fixing the big problem quickly.
Posted by: ray | November 8, 2008, 10:25 am 10:25 am
Young voter is correct.. Sorry this guy has already back stepped on a lot of issues since he started seeking this office! I just wish he would come out and tell the truth to everybody who believed he was going to give them a tax cut! In fact it is not a tax cut just a credit. Even Nancy is already starting to come out give little hints that they are not going to be able to accomplish some things! Oh well you all drank the Koolaid now live with the posion
Posted by: Chuck | November 8, 2008, 10:34 am 10:34 am
ray;
what’s you economic plan? solution?
who are your economic leaders that can fix everything?
young_voter:
I know it’s very difficult thing for you knowing
that a skinny ‘community organizer’ beat the Republican Party.
Posted by: Blue | November 8, 2008, 10:43 am 10:43 am
Hilarious. He doesn’t even take office for 2 months and people are already writing him off. It says much more about the writer than about Obama.
Let him take office on Jan 20 before you start tearing him down. Remember, he’s just trying to fix the spot the Republicans have put this country in. It will take decades to repair the damage of the last 8 years.
Posted by: james432 | November 8, 2008, 10:55 am 10:55 am
Obama is fully cognizant of the monumental economic and other problems facing our nation, however, he is our President-ELECT. He won’t be President until he takes the oath of office on 01/20/09. Until that time, we still have a President — George W. Bush. The economic mess, 2 ACTIVE wars, and international relations in the toilet have all happened on W’s watch. In the days remaining in his presidency he owes it to the nation, as well as his successor to take positive giant steps toward righting the ship of state. Had Obama been more forthcoming about his plans for putting the U.S.A. back on track, he would have been presumptious in the extreme. Meanwhile, he and his advisors are in the position of the clean-up crew following the elephant in the circus parade — no pun intended.
Posted by: nanameow | November 8, 2008, 11:27 am 11:27 am
It’s good the second part of the question was left out of the Nightline report. It was rather presumptuous that he would be asked about sending convoys to nations designated on the Bush’s axil of evil 3 days after his election. He hasn’t even had the time to assign a Secretary of State or Defense, and geo-political challenges in The Middle East at best are unpredictable.
Posted by: kat | November 8, 2008, 11:44 am 11:44 am
Obama was great yesterday, don’t listen to the sore losers.
So good to have an intelligent, pragmatic voice as Commander in Chief.
To all the Republicans who don’t seem to know that the election is over: YOU LOST. GET OVER IT. STOP WHINING.
America needs to unite behind our new President if we have any hope of solving our common problems.
REAL AMERICANS WILL ACCEPT AND SUPPORT THE RESULT OF OUR DEMOCRATIC PROCESS.
IT’S TIME TO COME TOGETHER AS AMERICANS.
Posted by: R Mutt | November 8, 2008, 12:07 pm 12:07 pm
Obama Did great for his first Press meeting, As President Elect its so good to see our future President not going into Deer in Headlight Zone, aka as Bush. Haters keep Bashing that will only make Obama Stronger you Bashed in the Primaries, You bashed in the General, and he still won both. so I say Bash away That will only Make him a Great President!
Posted by: Angie | November 8, 2008, 12:54 pm 12:54 pm
I like the idea that Obama has the MAJOR corporate heads on his side. BETTER than the Bush administration’s past 8 years of advisors, in my humble opinion. Obama has folks that are litterally ON THE FRONT LINE…instead of “OTHER” politicians to help with this crisis, though, he does have them represented.
Quit being negavite and look on the positive side for a change. Dont be a pessimist, be an optimist! NEGAVITIVITY breeds NEGAVTIVITY. What this nation needs is to be possitive and a “YES WE CAN” attitude!
Richard
Posted by: Richard | November 8, 2008, 12:55 pm 12:55 pm
We love you President Bush. You are certainly a class act. You always do what is right and this time is no different. We will miss you and in the days to come this Nation will miss you, they don’t think so now, but they will, just wait and see. GOOD JOB OUR COMMANDER IN CHIEF.
Posted by: Janice | November 8, 2008, 1:14 pm 1:14 pm
we will miss bush,
love Janice,
Taken from Janices comments on the political punch blog.
honey please,
the only people who will miss bush
are
the late night comics
bin laden-because he is still free and living well, right under bushes nose,
while bush invaded iraq-running us on a wild goose chase.
bush was in league with the bin laden family, and would never have really looked for bin laden.
so he told the bin laden family the best he could do was throw the us military off the scent of bin laden by invading iraq.
oh, and janice will miss bush also.
Posted by: one planet, one people, please | November 8, 2008, 1:31 pm 1:31 pm
uh, Janice,
He’s only “our” commander in chief if you are in the armed forces. The US does not have a position of commander in chief.
Posted by: Flash Override | November 8, 2008, 1:44 pm 1:44 pm
All politicians have to renegotiate their promises. However, since he is a black man, he is expected to be without flaws. The dangerousness of being the first of anything.
Posted by: jack | November 8, 2008, 4:47 pm 4:47 pm
Obama offered sound adivise to the Republican machine he so aptly dismantled when he joked about Nancy Reagan. It was stop looking to the grave for answers from Ronny Raygun. Yes the man was popular and did do some good things. But that was then and no amount of Reagan name dropping will bring him back. Times have changed so the ‘what would Reagan do’ mantra is passe’. Time to move on even if you felt the joke was in bad taste, it is the path of redemption for the conseravtive movement. If Republicans don’t find new leadership the will go the way od the wooley mamouth.
Posted by: mims | November 8, 2008, 5:17 pm 5:17 pm
All the Bigots and Obama Haters on this blog… Its time to move forward and embrace eachother… it is time to find common ground and look beyond skin color.. This is the GREATEST COUNTRY on this earth… We must prove this through action and that starts with a positive attitude… The climb is steep but WE CAn do this… let it go… the election is over and its time to come together… we all bleed red… We are Americans first… lets do it for the next generation who are looking on…
Posted by: jB | November 8, 2008, 5:26 pm 5:26 pm
First of all, WTH is “The office of the President Elect”? Why does he need so many logos?
“Mutt” is a derogatory term derived from “muttonhead”.
Nancy Reagan is currently recovering from a broken hip. The same affliction that led to Barack’s grandmother’s death.
And, the brain trust behind him looked kinda… white.
Posted by: Roxie from Chi-town | November 8, 2008, 5:38 pm 5:38 pm
Back to the second part of Jake’s question to Obama during Friday’s press conference, when Obama was asked when he would send low level envoys to Syria, Cuba and other designated nations. Obama’s response, which didn’t appear to be answering the question, was that it was unacceptable for Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Since then, Larijani, the Parliment speaker of Iran, has issued some statements to Obama’s response. One is that the Obama presidency would represent only cosmetic change and would be a continuation of the Bush policy. So Jake’s question on Friday elicited quite a rise in Iranian circles!
Posted by: kat | November 8, 2008, 8:13 pm 8:13 pm
Roxie from Chi-town
Obama’s Grandmother died of Cancer.
Posted by: MM | November 9, 2008, 1:23 am 1:23 am
When is Obama’s granny’s funeral?
Obama does not look devastated by his granny’s death. Oh! I understand winning the election compensated him for his poor granny’s death, and Obama supporters drank the kool-aid once again! Obama the ultimate politician probably had the plug pulled on granny to get the sympathy vote.
Posted by: Diana | November 9, 2008, 3:00 am 3:00 am
jack | Nov 8, 2008 4:47:47 PM
Obama isn’t exoected to be perfect because he is black, . He is expected to be perfect because his resume is os thin he told us it didn’t matter and everyone else’s judgement was so poor, compared with his.
As best I can tell, his press conference was about his concern on the economony, a restatement of some of the tenants of the stimulus package that have been floating around congress recently. As soon as he got off a prepared text, he made an unnecessary ahd tasteless joke about a 90 year old woman.
Obama’s adult decisions have been largely about things that affect his own life and his own run for the Presidency. I doubt if he really thought too much about his votes in any legislature. For the first time he is going to have to make decisions about things that affect the lives of others -without even the background senators typically performing their oversight roles and working on legislation.
I guess we’ll see if his thin resume matters.
Posted by: Mary OK | November 9, 2008, 8:46 am 8:46 am
Oct. 21, 2008 “Today, Dunham’s brother, Charles Payne, who is Obama’s great-uncle, told the Associated Press from his Chicago home that Dunham, who turns 86 on Sunday, “has not been well for a long time. Then she fell and broke her hip fairly recently. She’s unhappy with the condition that she’s in, I can tell you that.”
Broken hips in the elderly exacerbate any preexisting conditions. Both Obama’s grandmother and Nancy Reagan recently broke their hips. Obama’s remark was careless and mean-spirited.
From the press conference:
“It’s not going to be quick, and it’s not going to be easy to dig ourselves out of the hole that we’re in,” Mr. Obama said, declaring that he wants to see “a rescue plan for the middle class” and a further extension of unemployment-insurance benefits.
Obama needs to learn the First Rule of Holes:
When in one, stop digging. So, you know, “dig[ging] ourselves out” would actually be a bad idea.
Posted by: Roxy from Chi-town | November 9, 2008, 10:19 am 10:19 am
all old school voters must understand that the political environs of today has changed and the 21th century has arrived. the country has decided to renew itself.
Posted by: jaygoody | November 9, 2008, 1:04 pm 1:04 pm
Jack
It seems like you forgot about the last election. The democrats lost that one and they were very very sore whiney losers
So much so that it took months and months to finalize things
Posted by: sunnee1 | November 9, 2008, 4:32 pm 4:32 pm
Last Friday, Obama responded to someone’s question by saying that the development of nuclear weapons by Iran was unacceptable. Curiously, Larajani, the parliament leader worded his response as the development of nuclear power was unacceptable. I have a conjecture about Larajani- he wasn’t lost in translation but was conducting propaganda against Obama, who may be wildly popular in Iran. I’ve heard that the Iranian attraction to things American keeps the morality police busy. Also, according to a World Public Opinion poll conducted in 2007, 45% percent of Iranians have a somewhat to strong favorable opinion of America. I’ll have to add that polling contrasts strongly to Pew polling in Spain and France where favorability polls run in the mid to higher high 30% range. So my conjecture du jour is that Larajani is concerned about a rising tide of favorability towards the US, particularly Obama. It is my hope that smarts, not aggression, become the key operative in international relations. Of course, I’m talking sacrilege to a lot of people.
Posted by: kat | November 10, 2008, 1:17 pm 1:17 pm
I better qualify my previous post given the attacks I get from the right around here – Obama could be popular in Iran as he is in other non European countries for his biracial and bicultural background, not because he’s a Muslim or a Muslim sympathizer. Both are clearly falsehoods.
Posted by: kat | November 10, 2008, 1:24 pm 1:24 pm
We are in an GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS people. The GDP has been down for over 9 quarters. When it drops for even 3 it’s considered a recession. This will be worse than the depression of the 30′s. We are TRILLIONS in debt and anyone who thinks that ANY President won’t raise taxes has their head in the sand. It will take decades to clean this up. Even the economic “experts” understand the situation. From what planet are you going to find people qualified to fix this mess? We are ALL in this together.
Those who seem confused as to why Obama won this election….come on, this is a no brainer. After the Bush administration debacle God come have run as a Republican and would have lost to the Democrats. I am neither a Dem. or a Rep.I tired of politicians running on the false and out dated platforms of their parties and the petty bickering in Congress over party lines. In the past I’ve always voted for an independent with the exception of 2000, 2004 where I did vote for a Dem. only because Bush for President really seemed like a bad idea.
So, this is the first time I’ve voted for a Democrat because I felt he was the better of all choices.This will be the first time in 8 years I can turn on the news and not have to listen to the leader of our country butcher the English language while he’s butchering the Constitution and The Bill of Rights. I can visit another country and not be hated for being an American. And, maybe, just maybe, he can help foster the healing process necessary to mend the gaping wounds created by ignorant and racist ideologies that have kept us from truly becoming a great nation. He’s going to make mistakes. This is a global crisis unlike any we have ever had. There’s no blueprint to success out there for this mess. So,if he stumbles here and there I am not going to kick him aside, I am going to help him back up and with renewed spirit work for our country to once again become great.So if you can’t put aside your fears and unite then please just get out of our way.
Posted by: isabellaspeaks | November 10, 2008, 5:31 pm 5:31 pm