Obama's First Press Conference a B-

I thought that President Obama did fairly well in his first press conference tonight. He appeared to be informed and engaged in the fiscal issues but his facts continue to be skewed and partisan and his answers tended to be very cautious, particularly on foreign policy questions related to Iran. In addition, many of his answers were long-winded and somewhat boring.

Although no one yet knows how bad this recession is compared to previous ones, I question his continued use of fear tactics to create a sense of urgency about the passage of the stimulus bill. Frankly, I'm more interested in what the Treasury Secretary has to say tomorrow, which is very important to the housing and credit situation which is currently in limbo. When pressured on these tactics the President backed off his previous statement that "this crisis can turn into a catastrophe that we may never recover from". Sounds like the end of the world as we know it!

He also continues to put blame on the previous administation for the crisis and his "inheritance" of this giant deficit. This is quite disingenuous because the seeds for this began as far back as the Carter administration, was exascerbated during the Clinton years, actually stalled under Bush until the waning months of his term in office, and was catalyzed by Dodd and Frank during that time. Also,being driven into a war we didn't want and never started was a significant contributing factor. To say that the opposition presided over a doubling of the deficit sounds like the old political rhetoric that transformational leaders try to avoid.

His comment that we know tax cuts did not work in the past is totally incorrect. We have seen that tax cuts invariably increase government revenues and stimulate investment and the economy. FDR raised taxes during the Great Depression and prolonged the crisis. He also said that Japan failed to act boldly during its great recession in the 90's and paid the consequences. Well, Japan actually quadrupled its national debt with large government spending programs, we're only doubling ours, does that mean we're not acting boldly enough? He also said that Republicans are against government intervention (some Democrats are too),this is not really true. It's not intervention that bothers the GOP, its the type of intervention that is the issue. FDR's failed policies of the 30's is a great example of that.

I can't help but be amazed at the soft questions this Washington press corps threw at Obama. What ever happened to the hard-nosed, mature reporters of the past who didn't have to read their questions and didn't look like scared kids? The only mature reporter left is Helen Thomas and she should have retired decades ago. She asked if the President believed if "so-called" terrorists are hiding in Pakistan. Do you believe that? And what did she mean by "so-called"?

P.S. I thought Obama handled the A-Roid question real well, but it seemed out of place given all the weighty topics being discussed.