Today’s Qs for O’s WH – 6/22/2009
EmailTAPPER: In the face of poll numbers indicating that the American people have increasing concerns about some of the policies of the administration, and Democratic senators such as Dianne Feinstein saying that she doesn’t think, right now, the votes are there, in the Democratic caucus, for a health care reform bill to pass, what does the president plan on doing to firm up more public support and more support among Democrats on Capitol Hill for his health care plan and for other plans?
GIBBS: Well, I think the president will continue to speak every day about the issues that he believes are fundamental to us laying a foundation for continued economic growth. Obviously, throughout the week, the president is going to talk about the importance of cutting costs for families and small businesses as it relates to health care reform. I think we’ve seen progress over the past many weeks on getting comprehensive energy legislation — take steps to get that through Congress, to deal with lessening our dependence on foreign oil, ensuring that we’re taking steps to change the way education is delivered, and obviously to take steps to improve our economy through both the Recovery Act, through financial regulation. I think all four of those things is what encompasses the president’s time and I think you’ll see events throughout the week here at the White House on many of those topics.
TAPPER: Does the — does the president feel — does the White House feel that there needs to be more of a public campaign made? That the American people need to…
GIBBS: As opposed to people saying we’re overexposed?
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: Just does there need to be more of a campaign outside of the White House? He brought back some campaign rhetoric today, I think escaping the notice of nobody in this room. For the first time, does he feel like he needs to go out there and storm the country a little bit?
GIBBS: Well, no, I don’t think we need to storm the country. I think — I think the president will continue to use the opportunities that he has at the White House and on the road to talk about what he thinks will make America safer and stronger, ensuring that we get health care reform. And I think — I think if you — if you step back and look at some of the significance of today’s events, you’ve got the pharmaceutical industry and the largest group representing seniors in this country who 16 years ago weren’t at the table, but were on the other side of the political debate. I think that represents progress and important steps towards real reform. I would say the same — we’ve made progress on comprehensive energy legislation, and I think slowly but surely, we’re working to turn this economy around.
TAPPER: And one last thing: Has the president had a personal reaction to the images of violence that have come out of Iran this weekend?
GIBBS: Well, I think he has — I think throughout the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I think he has been moved by what we’ve seen on television. I think particularly so by images of women in Iran who have stood up for their right to demonstrate, to speak out, and to be heard.
TAPPER: Has he seen the image of the young woman who’s called Neda who was killed by a…
GIBBS: I don’t know if he’s seen that particular image. I know he’s obviously watched some coverage of the event this weekend and had been struck by the passion.
-jpt
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“Struck by the passion”? You asked him whether or not the President saw that a young woman was gunned down by an evil regime with whom he still wants to negotiate and Gibbs says he was “struck by the passion”????? What world is he living in?
Posted by: Faldo | June 22, 2009, 5:05 pm 5:05 pm
Faldo:”You asked him whether or not the President saw that a young woman was gunned down by an evil regime with whom he still wants to negotiate and Gibbs says he was “struck by the passion”????? What world is he living in?”
What, specifically, is your problem with that biblical choice of words? I don’t think it was at all over the top.
Posted by: jhw539 | June 22, 2009, 5:33 pm 5:33 pm
I laughed when Gibbs said Obama was moved by the women standing up, being heard. I think he’s reading Palin’s tweets.
Posted by: debs | June 22, 2009, 5:54 pm 5:54 pm
Biblical talk? You’re kidding, right?
Obama should know the name of Neda and Gibbs should affirm that he knows it. What a bunch of ineffectual and impotent… This makes me furious…
I’ll stop now and Obama can go and get some more ice cream and get in a round of golf while the brave young people of Iran get slaughtered…
Posted by: WhereWasThePress? | June 22, 2009, 6:02 pm 6:02 pm
What, specifically, is your problem with that biblical choice of words?
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Like the Passion of Christ? Are you kidding?
Posted by: MayBee | June 22, 2009, 6:03 pm 6:03 pm
I cannot believe that people are attacking Obama for doing a father’s day activity with his girls.
Losers.
Posted by: Blip | June 22, 2009, 6:04 pm 6:04 pm
MayBee:”Like the Passion of Christ? Are you kidding?”
I mean like “passion,” an English language adjective that is appropriate. The biblical reference is an easy example of its use, not an attempt to draw any corollary. Look it up in the dictionary.
Posted by: jhw539 | June 22, 2009, 6:12 pm 6:12 pm
The biblical reference is an easy example of its use
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What did you mean invoking it here? I know the dictionary meaning. I’m asking if you thought Gibbs was actually invoking that meaning.
Posted by: MayBee | June 22, 2009, 6:35 pm 6:35 pm
Great question Jake! I’m afraid that it flew over everyone’s head though.
Why don’t we just ask him flat out, “why isn’t congress willing to do what the people want”?
Of course if Obama had proposed what the people want in the first place (a single payer plan), then they might be compromising on something decent, instead of making the problem worse.
The people to the left of me, the congress to my right….
On the other hand, maybe we should be asking why Diane Sawyer is parroting RNC talking points instead of asking the questions people really have on their minds?
Posted by: Flash Override | June 22, 2009, 7:48 pm 7:48 pm
GIBBS: I don’t know if he’s seen that particular image. I know he’s obviously watched some coverage of the event this weekend and had been struck by the passion.
I am disgusted that the POTUS doesn’t have a more appropriate reaction to seeing that young woman being shot. I am thinking being “struck” by the passion (of the protesters, I assume he means)is non condemning, how about expressing something like anger at the regime for murdering people protesting for their right to speak freely or vote?
jhw539, get a clue, don’t defend Obama’s current position too much, don’t want to look foolish when he switches and is forced by world opinion to condemn the mullahs.
Posted by: Jason | June 22, 2009, 8:29 pm 8:29 pm
Jason . .. .
“I am disgusted that the POTUS doesn’t have a more appropriate reaction to seeing that young woman being shot.”
Jason are you and some others here unable to read english, or is your bias just so strong you can’t think sensibly?
GIBBS: I don’t know if he’s seen that particular image.
Posted by: danita | June 22, 2009, 8:35 pm 8:35 pm
He was too busy golfing to pay attention to Iran…
Posted by: liz | June 22, 2009, 8:40 pm 8:40 pm
Danita, are you serious? It has become the iconic image of the protests. The president has seen this video and if he has not, he is a much greater fool than I thought to have people who work for him who would not think it important for him to see this video. I would hope that the president has seen and heard a lot more about what’s going on inside Iran than the rest of us. This is what makes his position (or lack of one) disgusting to me.
Posted by: Jason | June 22, 2009, 8:40 pm 8:40 pm
Jason . . .
Who is to say that when this interview with Gibbs took place President Obama had seen the image – or that he’d had time to relay his reaction to this image to Gibbs.
It’s your bias and prejudgement that is showing, nothing more.
Posted by: danita | June 22, 2009, 8:52 pm 8:52 pm
Gibbs clearly answers, “I don’t know if he’s seen that particular image”. So how could Gibbs accurately give the President’s response to that particular image? And how can you then fairly judge that response when you don’t know it.
Posted by: danita | June 22, 2009, 8:55 pm 8:55 pm
Smear tactics abound.
Posted by: danita | June 22, 2009, 8:56 pm 8:56 pm
“Danita, are you serious? It has become the iconic image of the protests.”
Let me explain danita.
The right wing blogosphere has taken this poor brave woman and turned her into a brand.
Its Terri Schiavo all over again.
Posted by: Ryan C | June 22, 2009, 9:21 pm 9:21 pm
FoxNews: “Neda Soltan, Young Woman Hailed as Martyr in Iran, Becomes Face of Protests”
Jason “Danita, are you serious? It has become the iconic image of the protests.”
They report, you parrot.
Posted by: Ryan C | June 22, 2009, 9:25 pm 9:25 pm
Well, a martyr is one thing . . . lying about what the President said is another.
Gibbs clearly answers, “I don’t know if he’s seen that particular image”. So how could Gibbs accurately give the President’s response to that particular image? And how can Jason then fairly judge that response when Jason doesn’t know it?
Why put words in the President’s mouth?
Posted by: danita | June 22, 2009, 9:47 pm 9:47 pm
“Those nasty right-wing smear merchants
Posted by: Concerned in OH | Jun 22, 2009 9:40:54 PM”
Yes the Ashley Todd hoax spreader speaks!
Posted by: Ryan C | June 22, 2009, 9:48 pm 9:48 pm
“The right wing blogosphere has taken this poor brave woman and turned her into a brand.”
Seems like brand-mongering to use her death to score points against the “right wing blogosphere.”
Posted by: PD | June 22, 2009, 10:08 pm 10:08 pm
TEHRAN — It was hot in the car, so the young woman and her singing instructor got out for a breath of fresh air on a quiet side street not far from the antigovernment protests they had ventured out to attend. A gunshot rang out, and the woman, Neda Agha-Soltan, fell to the ground. “It burned me,” she said before she died.
This reminds me so much of the individuals at Kent State who were in the background and not involved in any immediate action and died when the National Guard fired live ammunition towards the student protestors.
Posted by: danita | June 22, 2009, 10:12 pm 10:12 pm
“This reminds me so much of the individuals at Kent State who were in the background and not involved in any immediate action and died when the National Guard fired live ammunition towards the student protestors.”
Or Tiannemen
Or going back farther to Hungary and Czechslovakia.
Brutal crackdowns by despotic regimes…
Posted by: Ryan C | June 22, 2009, 10:16 pm 10:16 pm
“Well, a martyr is one thing . . . lying about what the President said is another.”
The lie being what?
Posted by: PD | June 22, 2009, 10:33 pm 10:33 pm
“They report, you parrot.”
Translation: If it isn’t filtered through CNN, it must be false.
Posted by: PD | June 22, 2009, 10:37 pm 10:37 pm
Wow, I thought it was the Iranian dissidents twittering and using every possible way to get their message outof their country who “branded” Neda a martyr. It is insulting that you assume it is an American phenomenon or that it is somehow an attempt to co=opt the protesters on behalf of the Republican Party.
I pray for the family of that poor young woman and for her soul. What a terrible waste.
Posted by: moderate | June 22, 2009, 10:42 pm 10:42 pm
Mr. Tapper, please ask a tough question tomorrow and follow-up if necessary. I have no doubt that the president can hold up better than Gibby under serious questioning, but then again, my puppy can, too. I would like to see the president answer solid questions about the major issues of the day, esp. in foreign affairs. Please, we’ve all heard his mantra of “I don’t want to run a car company, I don’t want to run a bank” and of “we have to spend money to save money and if you don’t do what I want immediately (stimulus in January, health care now) the sky will fall.” We need to know more about how he plans to handle crises beyond our shores, including the North Koreans possible violation of the sanctions against that country and the ongoing turmoil in Iran and the Russians attempt to push an alternative international reserve currency.
Oh, and if anyone asks one of those “what has been the best and worst part of your job so far” feel-good questions, wasting precious time at the press conference on fluff, you have my permission to punch that person in the nose.
Posted by: moderate | June 22, 2009, 10:48 pm 10:48 pm
“that it is somehow an attempt to co=opt the protesters on behalf of the Republican Party.”
Because heaven knows the GOP has not tried to co-opt the protesters.
“Rep. Pete Hoekstra compares the use of Twitter in Iran to a Republican tweeting effort last year.”
“Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) joined Hoekstra, claiming that House Republicans are just like the Iranians because they are an “oppressed minority””
““I wonder if there isn’t more freedom on the streets of Tehran right now than we are seeing here,” ripped Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.), the ranking Republican on the Rules Committee, to Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) at the raucous hearing.”
Posted by: Ryan C | June 22, 2009, 10:50 pm 10:50 pm
noted ‘liberal’ Joe Scarborough says:
‘All we would do is undermine those people in the streets the second they are attached to the United States of America. The country, after all, has been known in Iran as the Great Satan since 1979.
We will undermine their cause and make no mistake of it, their cause is our cause.
They are fighting this fight, though, and do not need John Sydney Mccain or Barack Obama to get out and make statements that will only play into the hands of the mullahs or Ahmadinejad.
It’s so shortsighted i find it stunning.”
Posted by: XXX | June 23, 2009, 1:42 am 1:42 am
How much should we interfere in the reaction to Iran’s voting and protest? Maybe as much as the rest of the world reacted to the way this country treated blacks about 40 years ago. This president is not George Bush. He will not have a knee jerk reaction to what is going on in the world. He is a calculated man and will make sure his words are measured before he speaks out. He does not move when we think he should because he is his own man.The supposed winner of his election is already claiming U.S. involvment is fueling this uprising so give it a rest. Once again there are so many critical of this president when he has so much to work on. He knows his words have repercutions. Period. Any attack against the president’s judgement at this point is purely political and those adding to this snow ball should be ashamed. The first response is not always the best response. Remember Bush told the head of FEMA he was doing a good job during that initial katrina disaster. This current president actually thinks before he speaks. You should too.
Posted by: TV | June 23, 2009, 1:42 pm 1:42 pm
Ryan, do you ever read back over your comments and wish there was an undo button? The republicans are co-opting Neda’s death? By reading your comments over time, I’ve had you pegged as a student in high school or college. Perhaps I’m wrong, but if my assessment is true, are you not familiar with Neda on Twitter? Even my die-hard liberal friends are involved with that story. I think anyone who doesn’t live under a rock is in on it.
I’m going to co-opt one of your favorite lines and say it just goes to show that all liberals are clueless.
Posted by: Lily | June 24, 2009, 1:20 am 1:20 am
…and, of course I’d be lying (just like you) by using a blanket statement to label all people on one side of a political spectrum as clueless, liars, haters, etc.
Posted by: Lily | June 24, 2009, 1:25 am 1:25 am