First Conservative - Political Humor and Obamatudes

Obama’s Next Press Conference – Top Ten questions He Will Not Be Asked

Late Thursday, President Obama announced that he will host a live press conference next Wednesday evening.  Journalists will be working over the weekend to come up with questions that appear insightful, but won’t cause the President to give up actual information.  Journalists are out of practice at this since the last Democrat president over eight years ago.  Accordingly, there will be some missteps. 

Journalists who ask pointed questions are generally removed from the annual Press Club Dinner banquet, so the crack reporters from ABC, CBS and MSNBC will be on their game.  And Chris Mathews’ leg will be standing by for its appraisal.

CNN’s Susan Roesgen has been guaranteed front row seating as reward for her questioning at the Chicago Tea Party last week.  Journalists who support the President’s positions are provided prime seating and are sure to be called upon.   Ones that want the President to provide answers to important questions will be told to wait in the rain.   The talented journalists from MSNBC who want to know about the President’s new dog will be provided ample time for their questions.  

Press conferences are somewhat predictable.  Helen Thomas will nose-hum her way through an irrelevant question and the President will become irritated when he has to provide information.

The President has seen his approval ratings beginning to slip and believes that a personal, live performance for the American people should set things right.  Unfortunately, the economy has lost an average of 600,000 jobs each week since the President took office and he won’t be able to blame Bush too much longer.  These voters – along with a shrinking number of journalists – want meaningful answers.  Still, there are a number of questions that the press corps will almost certainly avoid.  There are forbidden topics out there that just might get the questioner thrown into the rain without his Press Club Dinner pass.  The following is a Top Ten List of questions that won’t be asked:

10.    Have any states agreed to or volunteered to take Guantanamo prisoners? – Of course no one wants these guys – especially the ones that demanded closure of the prison.  For Democrats, doing the dirty or distasteful work is the job of lesser people.  Even the European lefties that demanded the center be closed rebuffed the President when he asked if they would take a few. 

9.    Did you consider where to locate prisoners when you announced closure of the Guantanamo detention center? – This will get the questioner thrown out.  Of course the President didn’t consider this. He is in shock that people won’t follow his request without question to take cold-blooded killers into their states.

8.    With the unemployment rate accelerating since your inauguration, are you willing to take responsibility for the job losses or do you think the American people will accept an answer that you ‘inherited’ the additional 3 million lost jobs?  Obama will ride this horse until it drops dead.  Blaming Bush got him elected, but that game is over.  He will always blame others for His mistakes, but questioning a Democrat on a matter of responsibility is unacceptable.

7.    You frequently use the word “inherited” in describing the country’s economic problems. At what point, Mr. President, do you or will you accept responsibility for the economy?  Again, the President will state that the problems were so bad when He took over that solutions will require time.  However, now that He is firmly entrenched in the Oval Office, the unemployment rate has accelerated and not slowed.  Hope and Change have succumbed to reality and He has no answer.

6.    Your staff believes that the debt incurred because of the Stimulus will yield positive economic results.  Why then didn’t the deficit that occurred under President Bush produce positive results? Obama has no answer to this so He would be compelled to dance around it.  Democrats love to point out that Bush ran up a significant national debt.  They love to ignore the fact that their spending will quadruple that debt in one year.

5.    Now that the Chinese and Saudis have expressed reluctance to purchase US Treasury debt to fund the Stimulus spending, what are you prepared to provide them as assurance that their investments will be honored?  Obama wouldn’t have the expertise even to dance around this question.  Selling debt instruments on the international market requires the purchaser to have confidence in the seller’s economy.  Even the Chinese – no friends of capitalism – understand purchasing these notes is highly risky.

4.    With every increase in the money supply, Mr. President, inflation has followed very soon afterward.  Would you explain to the American people what level of inflation you expect with the massive increase in the US money supply to date?  And.. Will you further increase the money supply to support the Stimulus spending? Obama as well as his entire team would be clueless if this question came up.  There is more than sufficient data to explain why inflation increases when the money supply increases.  Obama will have to drastically increase the money supply when the Stimulus invoices start rolling in.  This will be Obama’s HUGE tax increase on the middle class.

3.    Do you think that prosecuting Americans who authorized the use of enhanced interrogation methods will encourage members of terrorist groups to like America enough to give up their plans to attack us?  Obama is safe here.  Journalists tend to believe that if the US is ‘liked’ no one will attack.  Bin Laden is counting on this.

2.     Should there be another terrorist attack on US soil, would you accept responsibility for not preventing it?  A hypothetical question to be sure, but Obama is in the process of destroying America’s ability to defend itself, so this will be a relevant question at some point.

1.    You have said on the international stage that America needs to be a better listener.  However, after enduring a nearly one-hour, venomous, anti-American rant by Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega, why did you not even attempt to defend your country’s before the world?   The obvious answer to this question is that Obama tends to agree with the opinions of Latin American despots.

The Presidential Press Conference last evening was revealing.  The President continued his tradition of delivering a finely tuned speech before the nation with the aid of a teleprompter.  In that there is no surprise.  The surprises began occurring well into the performance when - of all people - CNN’s Ed Henry - asked why the President had waited three days to express outrage over the AIG bonus payments.  Obviously annoyed at the impertinent question, Obama said that he just wanted to be sure he knew what he was talking about before reacting.

Henry’s question illustrated a new movement within the media-watching part of the country.  Viewers are wondering why the President who had a major hand in manufacturing this controversy by pressuring Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticuit to include language allowing bonus payments in the Stimulus package would then express such outrage when it became apparent that the country was angry about paying bonuses with tax money.  Obama and his Treasury created this problem and then lead the performance of outrage against it.  Obama’s methodology discredits media providers by relying on them to keep quiet about things like including bonus language in the Dodd Amendent. 

CNN has seen it’s viewership decline in recent months.   When CBS News saw it’s ratings hit bottom, the organization incorrectly judged that performance quality was the problem and brought in Katie Couric.  Unfortunately, CBS News’ problem was credibility, not performance quality.  CNN in trying to rebuild its ratings needs to capture good news by asking difficult questions.  Unfortunately for CNN and Ed Henry, Obama wants no part of an aggressive media.

Team Obama has relied on it’s performance quality to fan the flames of outrage and build an atmostphere of crisis.  To do this, they need accomplices in the media that will continue to support the twin doom and gloom messages.  But when it is pointed out that the administration themselves created the AIG bonus outrage and then lead the charge against it, Obama couldn’t provide an answer and hit back against Henry with a flippant and condesending response.

The real issue now is how CNN responds to the slapdown of a decent question.  Will they continue to rollover before the Obama performance machine, or will they begin to do the work of a free media by investigating and revealing information that the President would rather be kept under wraps?