Reel Time / Politics

Obama's First Presser Deals Mostly with Economy, 'Grim' Tone

View President Obama's first press conference as president here.  It mainly deals with the economy and his plans to begin repairing it.  Read below, one writer's view on the tone of the speech.  From the Politico article, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18629.html:

Barack Obama has a tough act to pull off. He must simultaneously petrify people and also restore their confidence. He must scare us to death and calm our fears.

He must convince the nation that the times are so dire we must carry out his bold plans immediately, and then he must persuade us to be patient and give his plans time to work.

Obama gave two shows Monday: a matinee in Elkhart, Ind., and an evening performance in Washington. He was calm and forceful at both. He made one joke at his town meeting in Elkhart about drinking beer and one joke at his news conference in Washington about how much Joe Biden talks (always good for a laugh).

But other than that, he was utterly serious. Make that grim.

Some people who have lost their jobs "have no idea what to do or who to turn to," he said at the news conference. Some people are going hungry, and food banks "don't have enough to meet the demand."

He used phrases like "full-blown crisis" and "vicious cycle." And he said that unless we do something quickly, "we may be unable to reverse" the crisis we face.

Nor should his stimulus and bailout plans, as massive as they are, be considered a complete fix. "Given the magnitude of the challenges we have, any single thing we do is going to be part of solution and not all of the solution," he said.

"The party," he said, "now is over."

No kidding.

Oh, and the war in Afghanistan isn't going that well either. "It is going to be difficult" to win there, and "I do not yet have a timetable for how long it is going to take," he said.

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/18629.html

 



Posted onTuesday, February 10, 2009Byicmaldonado icmaldonado
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