Hold a Washington news conference and you'll be sure to hear a lot about Washington obsessions.
Two big ones dominated President Barack Obama’s prime-time encounter with the White House press corps: budget deficits, and growing criticism in the Congress that the new president is biting off more than he can chew.
Obama fluently answered the questions, sometimes at considerable length. But his responses were typically variations on a single-word theme: Whatever.
He made it clear that he believes that his success or failure depends above all on whether he is able to make seismic shifts—and expensive ones—in the nation’s health care and energy policies. And he is fairly easy-going about the precise legislative path these initiatives take, or whether certain details fall out along the way.
Most of all, he’s entirely comfortable with his bet that he and the country can worry about certain inconvenient facts—like a 10-year deficit total of $9.3 trillion under his plan — some time later. He thinks voters agress.
Obama’s desire to simultaneously engage and brush off these Washington obsessions resulted in a news conference with a lot of code words and between-the-lines answers. Here is POLITICO’s translation of What Obama Said and What Obama Meant: - Politico Story
I agree with most of these. Obama seemed arrogant and was very slippery with his answers.
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