BS: Obama's First Televised Press Conference

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's First Televised Press Conference
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 05:50 PM

Four years in office and THIS just really makes us wanna bring back the "eloquent" idjit. Oh, yeah!

And just in case there's any misunderstanding...CLICK and wait for the intro music to cease. Are you all nostalgic?

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's First Televised Press Conference
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 04:33 PM

I have no opinion one way or another about whether the stimulus bill will help or further damage the economy, Doug. I just don't know at this point. I mean, seriously...I don't know! How could I?

Your puzzlement over Barry's being so moved by Obama is because you yourself don't believe in Obama, so you don't get it. However, I remember you saying some years back how tremendously moved you were by George W. Bush when he was campaigning in his first run for the presidency. That made sense to you (and not to many here) because you believed in George Bush. Barry believes in Obama. It's that simple, and that's really all there is to it. People are deeply emotionally moved by hearing a leader whom they really believe in. He may be right. He may be wrong. They are, in any case, moved...and they believe him. Look at how the Germans believed in Hitler, for gosh sakes! They were ready to move mountains for him in 1939.

You'll probably never feel that tingle or thrill when you hear Obama. After all, your entire sympathetic nervous system says "Ack! I don't like him." when it detects Obama...sort of like the body encountering an allergen...so you don't get those good feelings tingling through you, and I expect you never will.

People don't realize how automatic their responses are once they have made their mind up about anything. Anything at all. You name it. They make up their minds, and from then on it's basically automatic response....barring some complete and utter catastrophe or terrible disappointment which causes them to change their minds (as many Germans eventually did about Hitler...).

We're all like that, Doug, me included, we go by mostly automatic response, and I know it. We experience a programmed response, based on past assumptions that have gone deep into our subconscious, and THEN we summon up all kinds of logic and "evidence" to defend that programmed response. We might be right. We might be half-right. We might be wholly in error. Time will tell.

And so it goes...

That's why none of the persistent political wrangles that occur between specific people here will ever reach a positive resolution and a meeting of minds. Trust me. ;-) I know this. I've been watching it ever since I was knee-high to a beagle. When I was younger I was so completely submerged in the unquestioning faith of my own automatic responses to anything I had a strong opinion on that I didn't even know it was happening (in me, I mean...). I only saw it happening in others.

Now I see it happening in everybody. It's like the dream the entire world is lost in, and nothing takes people deeper into that mad, divisive dream than politics does.

Well...and religion (or atheism), coupled with politics.

Of course Obama can't walk on water. He'll be very lucky to survive the next four years without becoming wornout and jaded and quite disappointed by the entire experience. That's why I wish him luck.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's First Televised Press Conference
From: DougR
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 04:12 PM

kat: Wishing to create four million jobs and actually creating them are quite different. The current "Stimulus" bill supposedly will do that. Time will tell. Contrary to statements made by Obama and other Democrats, there is not unanimous agreement among economist that government spending will do more than add to the debt. There was a full page advertisement in our newspaper, and it probably appeared in all newspapers in cities of like size are larger, listed hundreds of economists that believe the current bill spells disaster for the economy.

And no, LH, I am not still smarting from the results of the election. Obama is our president and he won fair and square. This time around there were just more voters that that think as you, and most others on this forum think and think like I do.

As to the Press Conference, anyone who saw (after he left the telepromter)Obama as an articulate off the cuff genius must have been watching another Press Conference from the one I saw. He stumbled and "Ahd" his way through one hour and only answered 13 questions, most of them "softball" ones. The first one took 13 minutes to answer.

Barry: Your tearing up every time you head Obama speak sounds like something akin to Chris Matthews feeling a tingle run up his leg every time HE hears Obama. That is a phenomenon that is difficult for me to comprehend.

I'm not the only one who views our president as one who cannot walk on water. Check out Kathleen Parker's, (Washington Post "Writer's Group) column which likely will be in the Drudge report today. It appeared in our newspaper today. Though I'm sure she didn't write the headline, it sums up the substance of the article: "President's maturity level still a step shy of greatness."

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's First Televised Press Conference
From: TIA
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 03:35 PM

Horsepucky!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's First Televised Press Conference
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 02:41 PM

Soundbite: four million jobs

Who didn't hear that!

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's First Televised Press Conference
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 01:19 PM

I put the word "objectivity" in quotes, Ake... (smile) It was not his real objectivity I was advising Doug to look for in the toilet, it was his gross subjectivity I was referring to. He does not like Mr Obama or his party. He never will like Mr Obama or his party, regardless of what Obama does. This means he will never be able to listen to anything Obama says without automatically seeing it in the worst light and not having even a gram of patience to actually try and understand it or listen to it. He will listen to Obama only so that his already existing hatred of the man can be reinforced by amplifying the old resentments up another notch or two.

Now, of course, that's the way a lot of us here listened to George Bush too....with anticipation that his every word and gesture would give us further reason to despise him!

That's how people's minds work when it comes to politics. It's one good reason why you should never become a politician unless you have a skin like a rhinoceros and the self-confidence of Julius Caesar or Winston Churchill. It's a career that most people simply aren't tough enough to deal with.

Obama has 4 years of hell ahead of him, whether or not he is a creature of the $ySStem. How far do you think he could go in changing things even if he were totally his own man, Ake? How far would the powers that be let him do that? Do you really think the president himself runs the USA? Oh, he could try, I guess, but.......he'd better watch his back if he does.

Subject: RE: BS: Obama's First Televised Press Conference
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 10:31 AM

Comedians, of course, love screw ups. People who by their very nature invite caricature every time they open their mouths.

Last night, David Letterman said that he had listened to President Obama's first full press conference.

He said, "He was cogent, eloquent and in complete command of the facts. And I thought, Huh! What can I do with that!"

Subject: RE: BS: Obam's First Televised Press Conference
From: Big Mick
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 09:44 AM

You know, there is a simple truth that no matter how much obfuscation, no matter how much nasty generalizations, ...... you who lost simply cannot deny. We are where we are, and it happened on your watch. The failed policies, and the failed "trickle down", and the failed "trust them, them will self regulate" policies of your boy have put us where we are at. Your loving care of the "job creators" have now put your precious 401K's in deep doo doo. This man, this President, is taking a measured approach. He is following a plan, has told us it will be hard and that the goals will have to shift with the fluid nature of it all. You have spent years screwing it up, and barely 3 weeks into this man's presidency you act as if he is a failure. You have not had a President in recent memory that was as thoughtful and driven.

I am sure you are all nice folks, but your cynicism, negativity, and nastiness are disgusting.

Mick

Subject: RE: BS: Obam's First Televised Press Conference
From: Susu's Hubby
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 08:31 AM

Obama's a good speaker.

But so are most people that can use 100,000 words and not say a damn thing.


Hubby

Subject: RE: BS: Obam's First Televised Press Conference
From: irishenglish
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 07:41 AM

I'm sure his advisors would prefer if he gave a couple of useable sound bites in his answers, but when was the last time you heard someone answer the question put to them, and give an honest answer. And, to be back up, and answer multiple questions asked? He was honest. People who say it was boring have no patience, people who say it was "pathetic" really have no tolerance for someone giving a though provoking intelligent answer. Even if you disagree with his answers, you would still claim it to be "pathetic?" That I don't get at all. Guess some people have forgotten how to sit and listen to an answer that is more than 30 seconds long.

Subject: RE: BS: Obam's First Televised Press Conference
From: akenaton
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 05:49 AM

Wrong George!.....Leaving hatred out of it, this was a chance to change a system that we both despise, Mr Obama is a creature of the system as much as Mr Bush was. A kinder face perhaps, but the system's man for sure.

You were also wrong to advise Doug to put his "objectivity" down the pan, even if it was tongue in cheek.

When we start putting objectivity down the pan like so many "liberals" do, then we're really fucked!

Subject: RE: BS: Obam's First Televised Press Conference
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 04:52 AM

He's still experiencing shock and denial, Amos...his side lost the election.

But as always...people see exactly what they wish to see. Whether what they wish to see is also what is actually occurring is always the interesting question, but it would require someone truly unprejudiced to see it clearly. It wouldn't matter what Obama said...it would sound totally wrong to Doug, it would sound brilliant and right to many others here.

Time will tell whose version of reality is more rational in that respect. I'm hoping it's Amos's. ;-) I've personally never heard a politician who speaks better than Barack Obama does, but I have not seen the press conference in question, so I can hardly comment on that.

Let's put it this way. People have an initial assumption when it comes to politics:

1. I like this guy and what he stands for.
2. I hate this guy and what he stands for.

It's tawdry and sad...but that's how it works with people.

If their assumption is # 1, then what he says will probably sound very good to them, and they'll surely give him the benefit of any doubt.

If their assumption is # 2, then no matter what he says...it will sound stupid and dangerous and wrong to them.

That's how the human mind works, specially in the case of # 2. Nothing blinds a fair assessment of someone's performance like malice and hatred aforethought.

So take your sense of "objectivity", Doug...and go look for it in the toilet where it really belongs.

That's assuming you're wrong in your chosen prejudice against Obama (and against really any Democrat). To really know, though, we'll have to await long term results, won't we?

We had 8 long years to wait to fully assess the Bush presidency. Long term results? Not very F-in good!!! Which is why you now have a Democrat in the White House. Let's wait and see what 4 years of Obama brings.

It might not be as bad as you hope it will be, Doug. If so, I know how very disappointed you and the entire Republican Party will be. The very thought is...like a nightmare for you! Like being forced to eat horse puckey at every breakfast for the next 4 to 8 years! (but I'm not laying any bets on the outcome of the current administration...I already know that in the USA any grotesque travesty, any ludicrous policy, foreign or domestic, is easily possible no matter who is president).

Same shit. Same big interests behind the scenes. Different set of front office faces in Washington.

Good luck, Mr Obama. I hope to God you really do bring a change for the better.

Subject: RE: BS: Obam's First Televised Press Conference
From: Amos
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 03:14 AM

Do you have some specific and intelligent remarks about his statements, Doug? Or is flinging generalized bile your idea of expressing yourself?


A

Subject: RE: BS: Obam's First Televised Press Conference
From: Barry Finn
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 02:38 AM

Doug's deaf if he thought GWB was an orator of any kind. The man couldn't get the marbles out of his mouth. He's (Bush) the only Prez that made up words that no one else could follow because he lacked the brains to use the vocabulary that the rest of the english speaking world used.
Each time Obama speaks I tear up & nearly cry. To think that we now have an intellegant, well spoken, perz that can get to a point, any point or put an idea across in a way that is concise, clear, to the point, & put simple, Bush was just plain "Simple".

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Obam's First Televised Press Conference
From: Ebbie
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 01:21 AM

Good grief. I think it was a good press conference.

I can't comment on the beginning. I didn't see the beginning of the press conference but I understand Obama used a teleprompter for his opening remarks, rather than the desktop pages that others have used.

Surely, Doug, you will admit that he answered the questions far nore fully than you have heard from anyone in recent years?

I can't imagine a question that he was asked that dubya would have been capable of answering coherently.

Subject: RE: BS: Obam's First Televised Press Conference
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 12:45 AM

Take your fingers outta yer ears, Doug and take off the blinders. There is no honour in denying the Truth which is he is one of the best this country has ever seen. It's really sad to see you so out of step and in such denial, though I suppose there is some merit in your misguided loyalty.

Subject: BS: Obam's First Televised Press Conference
From: DougR
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 12:36 AM

One word to describe it: pathetic.

He made GWB look like William Jennings Bryan (for those across the pond that may not be familiar with WJB, he was known as the "silver tongued orator).

DougR