Monday, February 09, 2009

Thoughts on the Press Conference   [Mark Hemingway]

We Know People Are Suffering: Obama began with more "manipulative portraits of the downtrodden" — a tried and true campaign device. But pointing out that some people are suffering economically says nothing about the essential logic of the current stimulus package being debated, and seems designed to dismiss the very real possibility it could make things worse.

The Democratic Great Communicator Isn't Always: As good as he is delivering a speech, Obama is not a good extemporaneous speaker. It's been rare in his political career you get to see him doing both back to back and the contrast is stunning. The conference was, frankly, boring and long-winded. His answer to the first question was an unforgivably meandering and pointless 10 minutes.

Names Please: The President kept referencing people that believe in "doing nothing" as a response to the economic crisis. And this "tax cuts alone can't solve our economic problems" business is nonsense. Congressional Republicans are far from closed to the idea of government spending as a fiscal stimulus — it's the size and scope of the current bill they disagree with. Framing things as if the debate is doing something versus doing nothing is calculated political prestidigitation.

The New Deal's Old Wisdom: At one point Obama even went so far as to suggest the question of government intervention in the New Deal is somehow a settled question, with the implication that anyone who thinks otherwise is somehow nutty. Again, the New Deal was not one big cohesive plan — it was a bunch of alphabet soup programs spun out of Washington. Some were helpful, many were not. But the New Deal certainly didn't settle any questions about the overall wisdom of government interventions in economic crises, as that depends on judging the individual merits of dozens if not hundreds of different programs. Similarly, the current hodge podge of measures in the 'stimulus' bill should be also judged individually relative to how effectively they serve the explicit goal of fiscal stimulus and economic recovery. I don't think the bill holds up well when that standard is applied, and frankly neither do the New Deal programs.

Thirty-percent of the time he opens his mouth: Yes, the President did stop just short of explicitly acknowledging that the Vice-President is a babbling embarrassment.

There's a Reason It's Called a "Press" Conference: Given the importance and size of the economic recovery package, more pointed questions about what's in it were definitely in order (hint, hint). Questions about foreign policy are perhaps legitimate if regrettably off-topic, but asking about Major League Baseball is just a waste of everyone's time. And on Bill O'Reilly afterward, even Alan Colmes was admitting that perhaps Helen Thomas ought to think about finally retiring.

02/09 09:16 PMShare