Obama to hold press conference tomorrow
WASHINGTON -- For the fourth time in five months on the job, President Obama will hold a news conference with Washington reporters -- this time, in the Rose Garden of the White House.
The White House said Obama will give a brief statement, thn take questions from reporters; the administration's communications staff would not release any advance details about what the president would say. The situation in Iran -- where a police crackdown on protesters has led to deadly violence -- will likely dominate the 12:30 p.m. news conference.
Critics on the right, including Republican Senators Lindsay Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona -- Obama's challenger in the 2008 presidential election -- have chastized the president for not openly supporting the demonstrators. Students and others took to the streets of Tehran in large numbers on charges that the ruling Iranian regime rigged the vote in leadership elections a few weeks ago.
Obama, however, has stressed that the regime would interpret any strong statement from him as US meddling in its domestic affairs, giving them an excuse to use an even more brutal hand with the demonstrators. Obama's defenders also note that taking sides wocould jeopardize derail ongoing American diplomacy aimed at convincing Iran to abandon its ambitions for a nuclear weapon.
After declaring that Iran itself should choose its own leaders, without violence, Obama used increasingly tougher but still restrained language on the situation over the weekend. As waves of Iranian security forces arrested and clubbed protesters, the president called on the Iranian government to end the "unjust" use of violence against its own people.
Reporters at the White House press conference tomorrow also will likely ask the president tough questions about opposition to his health-care overhaul, the struggling American economy's slow recovery and significant problems with the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since taking office Jan. 20, Obama has held three q-and-a sessions with reporters, including a press conference broadcast live in prime time about two months ago. But this one may hold a bit more urgency: recent polls show that Obama's personal popularity remains high but doubts are growing about his plans to fix the economy and the massive federal debt it requires.
White House press conferences in the past have been seen as free-wheeling events, with notepad-waving reporters shouting and competing for the president's attention. But under Obama and his predecessor, President George W. Bush, they have been somewhat scripted and tightly controlled.
The president decides in advance who he will call on, choosing from a list before him at the podium. The opportunities for anyone not on that list is pretty limited, and asking a follow-up question generally depends on how aggressive the reporter wants to be.
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"The president decides in advance who he will call on, choosing from a list before him at the podium. The opportunities for anyone not on that list is pretty limited, and asking a follow-up question generally depends on how aggressive the reporter wants to be."
Excuse me??? The reporters treat Obama like he is a china doll. I'm surprised we don't see more of them fainting and swooning in his presence.
It is a great change to have a President who communicates more clearly and more often to the "open" press. Now if we could only get the "reporters" to ask questions that are relevent to most Americans, that would be appreciated. Will
C-SPAN get to ask questions?
Howard,
So you liked it better when we had a Preident who called the reporters teasing names and they fainted and swooned in the face of his insensitivity and ignorance?
Don't you guys have proof readers?
"...thn take questions..."
"...taking sides wocould jeopardize derail ongoing..."
Geeesh!
Howard, take your sour grapes elsewhere. Funny how you already forgot that the press had to treat W like a mentally challenged child.
Hey Howard, read the first line before that paragraph:
". . . and his predecessor, President George W. Bush . . ."
There certainly wasn't much fainting and swooning back then.
We will need to throw out Democeartic Party and return to democracy in 2010. This is not working at all.
Like Bill Clinton before him, Obama is in perpetual campaign mode. His poll numbers have slipped, with more voters voicing strong disapproval than those voicing strong approval of the President's performance. This man is only interested in retaining power in 2012. He is spending us into the grip of Communist China and is positioning himself to be the Dear Leader of the Communist States of America.
These staged little lovefests are getting tiresome and the people are catching on. Americans at large aren't too swift, but you can't fool all the people all the time.
Oh snap, can you name the last president who WASN'T only interested in getting re-elected?
I just have to laugh at you conservatives who think that the Democrats are somehow like communists. In fascist nations the "State" has all of the power.
It is the Republican's who nominate Supreme Court Justices who side with the rights of the State's, and against the rights of the individual. The Republicans want most of the power to go to the State's. A State is a form of government.
The Democrats nominate Supreme Court Justices who side with the rights of the individual and individual freedom. The Democrats are the party that values individual freedoms and rights to privacy, not the Republicans.
President Obama does not have a magic wand to fix the economy. You Republicans are not going to win an election on the economy after 8 years of Bush and the worst economy our country has faced since the great depression.
It took FDR time to get us out of the mess that the Republican Herbert Hoover created during the great depression. It will take time for President Obama and the Democrats to get our country out of the economic mess that the failed policies of Bush and the Republicans have created.