Infrastructure Spending, Public Disapproval of the President, and the New “Hoffa Standard”: Today’s Q’s for O’s WH – 9/6/20112
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TAPPER: The president’s talked about — I know there’s a lot in the speech that we don’t know about, but it does seem like infrastructure spending’s going to be part of it. He’s mentioned it several times, including yesterday. There obviously where hundreds of billions of dollars of infrastructure spending in the stimulus bill, and while that bill may have stemmed the bleeding, it obviously did not prompt the kind of economic recovery that the president had hoped. Why would a new round of infrastructure spending have a different effect?
CARNEY: The — I think your analysis of the recovery act I’ll — hundreds of billions I think may be overstating the amount of actual infrastructure spending. But the — remember, the — what a lot of people don’t know and wasn’t widely reported is that a third of the recovery act, fully a third, was tax cuts. The — and in –
TAPPER: But that still leaves –
CARNEY: And in — and in assistance to states, and there were a lot of different components of it.
TAPPER: I’ll call the Sheriff, he can get us a number.
CARNEY: We’ll get that for you. But the point is, what is uncontestable (sic) is that those infrastructure projects that were funded by the recovery act were very well managed, came in on budget or under budget, and led to the creation of many, many jobs, by an outside, independent analyst. I mean, broadly, the recovery act – I think it was over 3 million jobs, created or supported over 3 million jobs — created or saved over 3 million jobs.
If you’re asking me did it fill the hole created by 8 million jobs lost, the answer is no, because 8 million jobs is more than the 3 million that the recovery act created or saved. That’s how dire the situation was that we encountered when the president was sworn into office.
What it definitely did was, together with the other initiatives the president took in conjunction with Congress — is prevented us from falling into a Great Depression, and began the slow but steady road to recovery, which has led to more than 2 million private-sector jobs created in the last 18 months and economic growth rather than economic contraction.
Nobody is arguing that the growth we’ve seen this year is anywhere near robust enough, or that the job creation we’ve seen is enough.
But even this year, there have been a million private sector jobs created. And we certainly think that the initiatives taken – put forward by the president and taken up by Congress and passed had a lot to do with that.
TAPPER: There’s a new ABC News poll/Washington Post poll out today that shows a record high of American people disapproving of the president’s handling of the economy, of the deficit, of job creation. One in three Americans say they’re worse off now than when President Obama and before President Obama took office. What’s the president’s message to these people?
CARNEY: That he is working every day to take the necessary measures to grow the economy and create jobs, that he fully understands the anxiety that is out there among the American people about the economy, the frustration at the pace of growth, the frustration at the pace of job creation. And that’s why he feels it is so urgent to take action now and not to simply say, oh, well, we shouldn’t do anything and then let it all be decided next year after an election. The American people don’t deserve that. They deserve action now, and that’s why the president will call for action now.
TAPPER: And lastly, Jay, in January, President Obama said after the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, “At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of the of those who think differently than we do, it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.” Did he mean that?
CARNEY: Of course he did.
TAPPER: How does the comments — how do the comments by the Teamster’s president fit in with that?
CARNEY: Well, first of all, those weren’t comments by the president. Secondly, as I think has been recorded –
TAPPER: They were comments by a union leader at an event that President Obama spoke at.
CARNEY: I understand that there is a ritual in Washington that, you know, somebody says something and you link the associations and then everybody who has an association with him or her is somehow — has to avow or disavow it. The president wasn’t there — I mean, he wasn’t on the stage. He didn’t speak for another 20 minutes. He didn’t hear it. I really don’t have any comment beyond that, Jake.
TAPPER: OK, well, some of us covered the campaign and recall a time when somebody made some harsh comments about then-Senator Obama while — during the introduction of a McCain rally. And the Obama campaign was offended and expected an apology, and Senator McCain came out and did so.
CARNEY: The — Mr. Hoffa speaks for himself. He speaks for the labor movement — AFL-CIO. The president speaks for himself. I speak for the president. You know, what the president was glad to do yesterday was have the opportunity to present his views on the importance of working Americans and on the importance of taking measures to help working Americans, to create jobs and grow the economy.
TAPPER: So the precedent — so the precedent you’re setting right now for the 2012 election is that Republican candidates are the ones that we need to pay attention to, and those who introduce them at rallies, their surrogates — we don’t have to pay attention to anything that they say.
CARNEY: Jake, I really — I think I’ve said what I can say about that.
TAPPER: Is that the standard now?
CARNEY: You can report it as you –
TAPPER: I’d rather — I’d rather not have to do this Washington kabuki every time something happens. But if that’s — if that’s the standard — if that’s the standard, then –
CARNEY: The standard is we should focus on the actions we can take to grow the economy and create jobs instead of focusing on kabuki theater.
-Jake Tapper
Best Commencement Speeches of 2012 
Joe Biden Recalls Death of Wife, Daughter
Someone should explain to Obama’s Teleprompter:
The American people do not want more reckless spending.
The American people do not want higher taxes that destroy job creation.
The American people do not want more regulation which forces jobs to leave the country.
Obama’s CHANGE is taking away our HOPE! Obama is sending America on a downward spiral to economic stagnation.
The Democrats and Obama are trying to destroy the American Dream. The RECKLESS SPENDING, INTRUSIVE REGULATION, and HIGH TAXES are stopping job and economic growth. If we had listened to the Tea Party, our debt would NOT have been downgraded.
What Obama is going to do is make a bunch of proposals including more RECKLESS SPENDING and TAX INCREASES that he knows cannot pass the House. Then he will use that outcome to campaign indicating the Republicans are not working to fix the economy. This is DIRTY POLITICS of the highest order. Obama is putting his reelection AMBITION ahead of what is good for the country. Getting elected is more important than the SUFFERING of the American people to Obama. This COMPLETE DISREGARD for the welfare of the American people shows how urgent it is to vote Obama out of office.
Obama has made it clear he plans to spend $1 BILLION to try to get reelected. Spending $1 BILLION while the American people are suffering shows how out of touch Obama is. Having the taxpayers pay for what was just a campaign trip shows his disdain for the suffering of the American people.
The fact is the American economic problems will never be solved. All of the people living off the governments dime (welfare, food stamps, government employees, etc.) will continue to vote for the SPEND, PRINT, REGULATE, and TAX DEMOCRATS. The SPEND, PRINT, REGULATE, and TAX DEMOCRATS will continue to vote for the maintenance and extension of these programs so they can keep getting elected. It is a downward spiral with no viable solution unless all of us not living off the governments dime vote 100% to replace the SPEND, PRINT, REGULATE, and TAX DEMOCRATS.
Mr. Obama: stop campaigning, stop SPENDING, TAXING, and REGULATING and do what is good for the country.
We must continue to VOTE THEM OUT!!!
Posted by: AngryMobVoter | September 6, 2011, 4:47 pm 4:47 pm
Jay, you should have piggy-backed and asked him what they thought of Bidenn calling Tea Partiers as barbarians. Glibbs was so much better than Carney. he ofiscates around the truth and never comes up with a straight answer
Posted by: DJ | September 6, 2011, 4:51 pm 4:51 pm
“We appreciate Senator McCain’s remarks. It is a sign that if there is a McCain-Obama general election, it can be intensely competitive but the candidates will attempt to keep it respectful and focused on issues,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in an emailed response to reporters today.
Posted by: Jim T | September 6, 2011, 4:54 pm 4:54 pm
Keith Olbermann comments after the Gifford shooting:
If Sarah Palin, whose website put and today scrubbed bullseye targets on 20 Representatives including Gabby Giffords, does not repudiate her own part in amplifying violence and violent imagery in politics, she must be dismissed from politics – she must be repudiated by the members of her own party, and if they fail to do so, each one of them must be judged to have silently defended this tactic that today proved so awfully foretelling, and they must in turn be dismissed by the responsible members of their own party…
If the Tea Party leaders who took out of context a Jefferson quote about blood and tyranny and the tree of liberty do not understand – do not understand tonight, now what that really means, and these leaders do not tell their followers to abhor violence and all threat of violence, then those Tea Party leaders must be repudiated by the Republican Party…
Posted by: Jim T | September 6, 2011, 4:57 pm 4:57 pm
How dare the President, VP, Hoffa and the Democratic Party say the Tea Party is trying to undermine the economy and take jobs away. The Tea party is working Americans that want to hold this administration, Congress and the leaders accountable. All they want to do is cuss fellow Americans to hide the terrible job they have done. Had enough and am very discussed.
Posted by: Freedom | September 6, 2011, 5:14 pm 5:14 pm
Jake, I applaud your efforts. Carney and well all press secretaries are spin masters. I think the precendent is set. I think if President Obama felt a real moral obligation to set a tone in Washington he would stand up and say something. But it seems he’s being led by his interests and not his morals. Sloth, to quote one of the 7 deadly sins. He has an ability to lead with words, now he should show he can lead with actions. He would turn a lot of heads and get a lot of votes. Instead he has brough himself down in a mudslinging contest. Not a smart political move, not a smart moral move, just bad move in general.
Posted by: Daniel Russell | September 6, 2011, 5:16 pm 5:16 pm
Excellent questioning, Jay! The contrast is indeed striking…
From ABC Political Radar, Feb. 26, 2008:
McCain Apologizes Profusely for ‘Hussein Obama’
ABC News’ John Berman reports: Senator John McCain apologized profusely today for comments made by radio host Bill Cunningham who was introducing him at an event in Cincinnati. Cunningham referred to the Illinois Senator three times as “Barack Hussein Obama.”
Watch Cunningham’s introductory remarks HERE, then watch McCain’s apology HERE.
“Americans, now we have a hack Chicago-style Daly politician who is picturing himself as change. When he gets done with you all your are going to have in your pockets is change,” Cunningham said of Obama before introducing McCain.
“At some point in the near future the media, the stooges from the New York Times, CBS, the Clinton Broadcasting system, NBC, the nobody but Clinton network, the all Bill Clinton channel, ABC and the Clinton News Network at some point is going to peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama,” Cunningham said.
“At some point the media will quit taking sides in this thing and maybe start covering Barack Hussein Obama the same way they covered Bush, the same way they covered Cheney and the same way they cover every Republican,” he said.
There was a quick reaction from McCain today.
McCain apologized three separate times for Cunningham’s remarks. He said he takes “responsibility” for him being here but says he has no idea who chose him and says he doesn’t know him and didn’t hear the comments when they were uttered but was told about them before he came on stage.
“We appreciate Senator McCain’s remarks. It is a sign that if there is a McCain-Obama general election, it can be intensely competitive but the candidates will attempt to keep it respectful and focused on issues,” Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said in an emailed response to reporters today.
Posted by: Oliver Shagnasty | September 6, 2011, 5:26 pm 5:26 pm
Jake: I think you may be the last journalist left in the white house press corps. Watching the video of the exchange between you and Carney over the Hoffa remarks, you could almost hear the crickets.
The look on others “stenographers” faces was one of ” we were not supposed to be talking about this. They are all such lap dogs. You are the only one who actually asks questions that have some push back. Good for you.
Posted by: marsha helton | September 6, 2011, 5:54 pm 5:54 pm
“ABC News’ John Berman reports: Senator John McCain apologized profusely today for comments made by radio host Bill Cunningham who was introducing him at an event in Cincinnati. Cunningham referred to the Illinois Senator three times as “Barack Hussein Obama.”
Has anyone asked why it was unacceptable to use “Hussein” during the campaign, but he was sworn in using it?
Posted by: wheresmymoney | September 6, 2011, 6:02 pm 6:02 pm
Thank goodness there are some real journalists/reporters left to ask the questions that need to be answered (even though they aren’t). Jake Tapper made a very good point in his line of questioning today. Does this set a new standard for anyone associated with the political world? Are we to just focus on what the Republicans or Tea Party or Libertarians say that people consider inflammatory? The Democrats and/or Unions get a free pass? That’s what this has come to?
By the way, someone needs to tell Carney that the Teamsters split away from the AFL-CIO a few years back. So, no, I don’t think Hoffa was ‘speaking for the labor movement – AFL-CIO’. I suppose the boy wonder was a little anxious at Mr. Tapper’s questioning and got confused. Or, maybe, being a part of the Obama team, he just doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Posted by: Shoe | September 6, 2011, 6:08 pm 6:08 pm
TAPPER: How does the comments — how do the comments by the Teamster’s president fit in with that?
CARNEY: Well, first of all, those weren’t comments by the president.
Were the comments about Giffords made by a president? This answer is right up there in the all time dumbest for Carney, and he has had some doozies.
The truth is, violent talk is perfectly acceptable to Obama if it is coming from Democrats, but not Republicans. He has controlled the media for the last 3 years, threatening to ban reporters if they paint the president in an unfavorable light. And the media have bowed to his orders. What good soldiers they are.
Posted by: wheresmymoney | September 6, 2011, 6:10 pm 6:10 pm
Hoffa was clearly talking about voting out Republicans, but it wouldn’t be as sensational to include that part of he clip. If you really want to act do indignant at Hoffa’s comment, the least you could do is play the entire statement. When did teabaggers get do delicate? After several years of calling President Obama a Nazi, Muslim, Fascist, Kenyan, Communist, Socialist it seems a tad disingenuous to be so outraged. After all, these are the people who raffle off guns to raise money in a district where their representative is shot. Nice!
Posted by: C Gibson | September 6, 2011, 6:14 pm 6:14 pm
Jake – Thanks for taking a chance by holding yourself to a higher standard. It is much admired and appreciated. When logic and reason seem to have left the building, I was glad to see you shed a little light of sanity into the room, even if everyone else in the room chose to be willfully blind.
Posted by: WD | September 6, 2011, 6:15 pm 6:15 pm
It was a union event. The format was job growth. James Hoffa was supporting the views of his constituency. The Teamsters union obviously don’t like the Tea Baggers. I agree with them. I don’t see what the big hullaballoo is all about – We do have Freedom of Speech. Even when it’s outright lies and even when it’s someone offensive. What a lot of whiners.
Posted by: naturalcuriosity | September 6, 2011, 6:31 pm 6:31 pm
Jake, you are doing a great job. thanks for asking the obvious question and keeping after Carney when he tried to duck it. Sorry, Natural Curiosity, but you are missing the point here. The president and his people sniffed about “inappropriate language” and “the coarsening of the discourse” then turn a blind eye when someone who supports the president speaks in this way. There is a double standard here, it appears, and Mr tapper was asking the WH to explain the president’s position on that double standard and his role in it. Good work, Jake.
Posted by: moderate | September 6, 2011, 7:22 pm 7:22 pm
Apparently it’s OK when a Obama supporter spouts devisive rhetoric.
Posted by: newcountryman | September 6, 2011, 7:46 pm 7:46 pm
Oh please people. What the Tea Party has done during their campaigns with the Hitler signs, and Monkeys, and even worse. What a bunch of whiners.
Posted by: naturalcuriosity | September 6, 2011, 7:48 pm 7:48 pm
Logically, Jake’s analogy between the McCain rally and Hoffa’s remarks is a poor one. At McCain’s rally specific comments were made about Obama. This was not the case with Hoffa who made very generalized remarks about the opposition’s base in the context of an election. This is a nuts and flakes to apples and oranges comparison ;^)
Catnip for right wingers, for sure– I can see the comments piling up and how ginned up the right is getting— but the poor framing disappoints… or maybe validates my view that today’s media isn’t helping us to become better informed.
Posted by: Kimberly | September 6, 2011, 8:05 pm 8:05 pm
It’s no surprise Jake would push the Hoffa issue. His co-reporter Mary Bruce was the one who edited out the ‘voting’ comments from what Hoffa said and then put it in as a ‘quote’. It was not a quote it was a quote edited to give a false impression.
Hoffa was clearly talking about voting and taking people out with votes – in fact that’s what he said. Mary’s first misreporting gave the false impression the quote was not about voting. Something is definitely amiss at abc when they are doing this kind of very poor, inaccurate, misleading reporting and then try to push the issue further.
Posted by: Dane | September 6, 2011, 8:34 pm 8:34 pm
How does one listen to Carney for more than a few seconds without one’s eyes glazing over?
Posted by: drjohn | September 6, 2011, 9:25 pm 9:25 pm
CARNEY: That he is working every day to take the necessary measures to grow the economy and create jobs, – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – Presidential candidate Obama use to say that he would have a “smarter” approach. It is not enough to work hard as it is to work smart! Doing the same “failed” stimulus ideas is the definition of insanity!
Posted by: Voice_Reason | September 6, 2011, 9:25 pm 9:25 pm
It’s hilarious watching left wingers to to dismiss Hoffa’s words. They’d be screaming for Sarah Palin’s head had she said “Let’s take out that sob Obama” no matter WHAT the context.
Posted by: drjohn | September 6, 2011, 9:26 pm 9:26 pm
Thank you Jake. You are awesome. You try to get to the truth.
Posted by: Rafe | September 6, 2011, 9:27 pm 9:27 pm
Someone needs to remind the President that the Chinese are our “loan shark” and their military build-up is to help them enforce payback of the loans!!! Keep in mind we shouldn’t borrow foreign money unless we are willing to fight with the loan shark!
Posted by: Voice_Reason | September 6, 2011, 9:30 pm 9:30 pm
Dr. John, no specific name was mentioned by Hoffa . The better analogy would be what would the left do if someone — say a tea party leader– was speaking a half-hour before Palin, or an actual GOP candidate or elected official at a rally, and said everybody in the tea party has a vote, and it’s time for the tea party to march for the tea party and whatever it is they stand for (God in gov’t, authoritarianism, repeal of 20th and 21st centuries, the rights — and wealth and power– of Murdoch, the Kochs and the plutocracy) against the liberal or progressive or “socialist” or democratic or Marxist or whatever it is they feel like calling those who disagree with them that day (it changes but it always sounds the same as the Liberty League and the Birchers and such) sons of ______ and take them out, meaning take them out by voting and ensuring their voices are heard, too.
You act as if we haven’t heard that. lol. It’s absurd, really. Can the right really be that unaware?
Posted by: Kimberly | September 6, 2011, 9:52 pm 9:52 pm
Thank you for continuing to challenge this Obama rep.
Please continue the effort until the President himself makes a statement, since Hoffa was his chosen opening act and set his tone for “civility” (which seems only to be reserved for those who object to left-wing government expansion and financial messes).
I sure wish you’d also ask publicly and continuously about Obama and his Fast & Furious program.
Good work, Mr. Tapper.
Posted by: Barbara | September 6, 2011, 11:08 pm 11:08 pm
LOL! ….. Republicans supported Sarah Palin putting “cross hair” targets on peoples names. And now, they’re offended??? … What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. … Stop your “crying” Republicans, two can play ugly, not just the idiot side.
Posted by: Georgie_Bushie | September 6, 2011, 11:09 pm 11:09 pm
Love to watch the Republican right try to back out of the fact the Republicans had 12 full years with the majority in Congress to build their ‘strong Republican’ economy, and that it collapsed like a house of cards into a massive economic disaster. Losers. If it wasn’t for that evil, all-powerful Barney Franks everything would have been perfect for them. Losers.
Posted by: Don | September 6, 2011, 11:40 pm 11:40 pm
“The American people do not want higher taxes that destroy job creation.”
Americans do pretty clearly want tax increases. Virtually every poll shows them to be the overwhelming majority
Posted by: Asiina | September 6, 2011, 11:55 pm 11:55 pm
Careful Jake, these guys don’t take kindly to criticism, which many of us in the real world see as actual journolism. They prefer the kind practised on MSDNC.
“Civil discourse is a one-way street if you’re a democrat.”
Posted by: Dan Shay | September 7, 2011, 12:48 am 12:48 am
Posted by: Dan Shay | September 7, 2011, 12:48 am 12:48 am
“journolism”?
Posted by: Tanya | September 7, 2011, 12:58 am 12:58 am
Is Jake Tapper tapped to be a journalistic Pariah? I have a sense there are many indignant reporters out there who finally see how they’ve been aiding and abetting some manipulative politicians who rode them for every last gain. Maybe Tapper’s growing a pair, or maybe they’re just descending.
Tapper to the helm! SOLIDARNOSC!! Let us release the honesty in every journalist! Way too many “get out of any tough questions” cards have been played by this administration. Get to work, and bring the news. No more quoted talking points from the White House. Doesn’t it feel good to have a little integrity and hold the spokesnut accountable? Or at least try. Carney is like Smithers, protecting Mr. Burns. What a weasel. “what he said is what he said. The President says what HE says. I say what the president says, so stop asking what the president thinks.”
Sheesh…. election time…. NOW
Posted by: dbright | September 7, 2011, 1:21 am 1:21 am
Posted by: dbright | September 7, 2011, 1:21 am 1:21 am
You never followed the work of the press secretaries under Bush? They were a piece of work. At least one of them was honest enough to admit he found out much later he was being lied to by the Bush administration and that he had been passing on those lies to the media. I admire him for that.
Posted by: Turner | September 7, 2011, 1:27 am 1:27 am
Hoffa’s call to violence is outrageous. I’m surprised the president isn’t calling for him to tone down his rhetoric.
Posted by: Patrick | September 7, 2011, 6:14 am 6:14 am
Thank you, Jake. You really ARE the only true journolist left in the room.
Don’t assume the public doesn’t know that; they DO. :)
Posted by: Mary | September 7, 2011, 8:28 am 8:28 am
So, now there’s a kill the Tea Party people first person shooter video game? The left have zero credibility in their claims of hatred and violence coming from the Tea Party. The Tea Party does not engage in this kind of violent rhetoric even though the left lies and says we do while the leftists actually engage in the activity they claim we are doing, even though we don’t.
Posted by: TexBork | September 7, 2011, 9:54 am 9:54 am
“So, now there’s a kill the Tea Party people first person shooter video game?”
I never heard of it. Is it located near the shoot a gun at a congressional dem game, or hunt a progressive or liberal game, or oppress the voting rights of democrats game, or smear the opposition as Marxist game? Or maybe its next to the scapegoat and impoverish the public school teachers game?
Posted by: Kimberly | September 7, 2011, 10:29 am 10:29 am
Patrick, Hoffa did not make a call for violence. This story has cherry-picked quotes from his speech to give that appearance. You can see for yourself on youtube, Hoffa is clearly and repeatedly calling for folks to get out and vote the far-right people out of office.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I am so disappointed that ABC news would stoop to sensationalism like this made-up controversy on Hoffa’s speech.
It has taught me to not blindly trust everything Ann Compton, Mary Bruce & Jake Tapper write. Thank goodness for youtube to see the reality and not just by stuck with the hype.
Posted by: Lydia | September 7, 2011, 10:55 am 10:55 am
Posted by: Kimberly | September 7, 2011, 10:29 am 10:29 am
I don’t like all those shooter games.
I got me a copy of “Let’s drive the country off the cliff Lib/Progressive spending game”.
Posted by: Noz | September 7, 2011, 12:00 pm 12:00 pm
Noz, historically, Republicans are the big spenders, so your game would have to be “Repub/ pretending-to-be-conservative spending game”.
Posted by: Lydia | September 7, 2011, 12:20 pm 12:20 pm
Posted by: Lydia | September 7, 2011, 12:20 pm 12:20 pm
Is that similar to the “Demos in RINO garb herd the cats keynesian russian roulette economics game”?
Posted by: Noz | September 7, 2011, 12:40 pm 12:40 pm
c gibson, why is calling someone a socialist an insult or an epithet?
Posted by: grumpopolis | September 7, 2011, 12:52 pm 12:52 pm
Is that similar to the “Demos in RINO garb herd the cats keynesian russian roulette economics game”?
Posted by: Noz | September 7, 2011, 12:40 pm 12:40 pm
It’s the ‘Don’t Vote Republican, They’re Lying Again’ game.
Posted by: Jim | September 7, 2011, 1:43 pm 1:43 pm
“It’s the ‘Don’t Vote Republican, They’re Lying Again’ game.” – Jim
I don’t play that one Jim.
I’d rather vote for a Demo than a Lying RINO.
At least you know what you get with the Demo.
Posted by: Noz | September 7, 2011, 1:55 pm 1:55 pm
Mr Tapper, your witless, clueless exchange with the Press Sec only solidified your lowly status as a HACK who will stoop to GOP-level hyperbole in your gutless and amateurish sniffing around for, “a headline”. It works into the narrative of the right-wing jock sniffers, of which you once again stand as one of and with them.
Be a journalist for a change, not some water-carrier for the GOP. I think you have the intelliegence, though I seriously question your motives and impartiality.
The American people not only expect more of their president, but equally so for the smug, sniping GOP and journalists like you who are too lazy to dig into the real issues that need addressing in this country.
Posted by: tdub | September 7, 2011, 3:27 pm 3:27 pm
Jake, if you had any guts, you’d bring up this issue every press conference until Carney admits what a hypocrite the president is. Obama called on his opponents to tone down the vitriol, and then cranked it up times ten. Until they admit it, they’re playing you.
Posted by: Larry | September 7, 2011, 4:00 pm 4:00 pm
Jimmy Hoffa how about getting all those NON UNION trucking companies into the UNION? Leave the tea party alone.
Posted by: daniel | September 7, 2011, 4:45 pm 4:45 pm
Way to go Jake, beautiful questioning. I like how you show the inconsistencies with the W.H. Great job, keep up the good work
Posted by: Conerned American | September 7, 2011, 8:51 pm 8:51 pm