Guess Who Doesn't Like the Press?
HAYES, STEPHEN F.
Guess Who Doesn’t Like the Press And the feeling may be mutual. BY STEPHEN F. HAYES On April 21, 2008, the day before Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary, Barack Obama sat at the counter of...
...Obama, perhaps realizing how his reaction might look, offered a little smile...
...One reporter at the diner wrote that the candidate glared “sternly” at the questioner—the wrong kind of audacity, apparently...
...Senator, did you hear about Jimmy Carter’s trip...
...and your new White House counsel said that her r?sum...
...BAKER: I’m asking a question...
...Senator Bob Casey Jr., who had endorsed Obama and was traveling with him throughout the state, occupied the next stool...
...Duncan, much better...
...It had all the makings of a great photo-op—home state senator, local eatery, lots of cameras...
...But Obama seems to get annoyed at perfectly reasonable questions that have nothing at all to do with his one-president-at-a-time position...
...So do you have another question...
...At his fi rst press conference, three days after the election, he backed some kind of stimulus package and artfully dodged several tough questions...
...So McCormick tried to get an answer on the special election...
...To a certain extent, Obama’s reluctance to answer is understandable...
...But only rarely did he give a direct and substantive answer...
...First of all, . . . do you favor or oppose a special election to fi ll your vacancy...
...And he still doesn’t like the press...
...Over the weekend, the Tribune reported that Rahm Emanuel, your incoming chief of staff, had presented a list of potential names . . .” Obama had heard enough...
...McCormick asked...
...As I indicated yesterday, we’ve done a full review of this...
...I’m not going to—I’m not going to discuss numbers right now, Kim, because I think it’s important for my economic team to come back with a recommendation...
...But he still refused to answer...
...Obama did talk at some length about buying a dog for his daughters...
...Sure...
...And on it went...
...There are other similarities...
...As he said throughout the campaign, this election was about us, not him...
...I think she is going to be an outstanding secretary of state...
...Reporters, not unreasonably, wanted a little better idea of what he actually wanted...
...Okay...
...He finished with a testy statement of the obvious...
...It is going to be of a size and scope that is necessary to get this economy back on track...
...On occasion, yes,” Gibbs said, adding that such instances were infrequent...
...And, you know, beyond that, I don’t think I should comment on the nature of the intelligence briefings...
...At a press conference in Chicago on Wednesday to introduce Obama’s longtime friend Arne Duncan as the nominee to be secretary of education, John McCormick, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, asked Obama a twopart question about the fallout from the arrest of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich...
...And if she didn’t believe that I was equipped to lead this nation at such a diffi cult time, she would not have accepted...
...In a New York Times Magazine profi le of Robert Gibbs, the incoming White House press secretary, Mark Leibo vich reveals that the Obama campaign emulated the “Bush model” of tight information control...
...And secondly, you told us at your fi rst press conference after the election that you were going to take a very handsoff approach to fi lling that spot...
...Another reporter wanted to know whether he intended to repeal the Bush tax cuts or simply let them expire at the end of 2010...
...Whether that’s done through repeal or whether that’s done because the Bush tax cuts are not renewed is something that my economic team will be providing me a recommendation on...
...was grossly exaggerated when it came to foreign policy...
...OBAMA: No, I understand...
...Crowley also asked whether he’d learned anything in his briefings that gave him second thoughts about any of the policies he advocated during the campaign...
...Just asking,” said the reporter...
...CNN’s Candy Crowley, for instance, noted that Obama had begun receiving intelligence briefings and asked whether he thought the intelligence agencies were doing a good job sharing information...
...Just let me eat my waffl e.” Obama fi nished his breakfast, lost the Pennsylvania primary, won the Democratic nomination, and after riding a wave of media adulation unseen in recent times, is now less than a month from becoming our 44th president...
...I’m going to let the state legislature make a determination in terms of how they want to proceed...
...At the time, the Obama campaign cited space concerns...
...As Obama cut into his butter-soaked waffl e—fork in his left hand, knife in his right—one newshound wanted the candidate’s reaction to the news of the day...
...Obama apparently did the same to three newspapers this fall—the Washington Times, the New York Post, and the Dallas Morning News—all of which had endorsed John McCain...
...In an exchange during one of the primary debates, Obama had promised that his administration would seek to engage America’s enemies—a position that Hillary Clinton had called “na?ve” and “irresponsible...
...And I’m— and you’re having fun...
...I’m going to skip that...
...At press conference after press conference, Obama introduced his new appointees and took a few questions...
...OBAMA: And there’s nothing wrong with that...
...When the president-elect introduced Hillary Clinton as his choice to become secretary of state, Peter Baker from the New York Times asked him an obvious question...
...After all, as he put it in the opening statement of his initial press conference as president-elect: “The United States has only one government and one president at a time...
...But take the time to look at what he has actually said in these engagements and you will be less impressed...
...There was just one problem: those pesky reporters...
...A third reporter noted that Senator Schumer had suggested a $700 billion stimulus package and pointed out that a noted investor thought $1 trillion would be better...
...It was easily the most direct response Obama gave in any of his fi ve press conferences last week, and it was probably the most direct response he has given since winning the presidential election on November 4. Barack Obama has promised to run the most transparent White House in history...
...It didn’t work...
...It would be inappropriate for me to comment, because the—the— for example, the—the story that you just talked about in your own paper, I haven’t confi rmed that it was accurate, and I don’t want to get into the details at this point...
...Former President Jimmy Carter had traveled to the Middle East to meet with leaders from Hamas...
...Obama snapped with his mouth full...
...Noting that Obama had mocked Clinton’s foreign policy experience during primary season, Baker wondered why he had settled on her to lead his administration’s foreign policy team...
...I have received intelligence briefi ngs...
...BY STEPHEN F. HAYES On April 21, 2008, the day before Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary, Barack Obama sat at the counter of the Glider Diner in Scranton...
...I’m wondering whether you could talk about the evolution of your views of her credentials since the spring...
...During the 2004 election, Dick Cheney famously kicked the New York Times off his campaign plane...
...The president-elect has held a record number of press conferences, and quite naturally he has earned lavish public praise for the frequency of his appearances...
...Why is it that I can’t just eat my waffle...
...He is right, of course, and it’s smart—or at least defensible—for him to pass on questions that might make the current president’s job more diffi cult...
...So it makes some sense that he would let us see what we will be doing...
...I mean, were there occasions...
...I’m not—I’m not faulting it...
...You know,” said Obama, “I’ve said that I don’t think the governor can serve effectively in his offi ce...
...So the fi rst question was: “What are the details on your proposed stimulus package: how much it’s going to cost, where the money’s going to come from, and when do you want to see it enacted...
...I think if you look at the statements that Hillary Clinton and I have made outside of the—the heat of a campaign, we share a view that America has to be safe and secure and in order to do that we have to combine military power with strengthened diplomacy...
...John, let me just cut you off, because I don’t want you to waste your question...
...McCormick tried once again to ask Obama about his “hands-off ” approach to filling the seat, and Obama once again refused to discuss it...
...Obama’s second press conference focused on the economy...
...I think it has gotten better...
...Our intelligence process can always improve...
...Laughs...
...But when Leibovich asked Gibbs whether reporters were kicked off the plane for considerations other than space, Obama’s spokesman fi rst said “no” but later amended his response...
...BAKER: Your quotes, sir...
...Obama offered some of the platitudes leftover from his campaign and then deferred his answer...
...Campaign manager David Plouffe acknowledged that they “talked a lot about the Bush model” inside the campaign and, like the Bush White House, sought to limit the spread of information internally so as to avoid the leaking that badly damaged the campaigns of Obama’s rivals...
...Baker: Going back to the campaign, you were asked and talked about the qualifi cations of the—your now— your nominee for secretary of state, and you belittled her travels around the world, equating it to having teas with foreign leaders...
...Having tried gamely to get the president-elect to answer one of his questions, McCormick gave up...
...The—the facts are going to be released next week...
...How does that square with Obama’s promise to move beyond politics and to run the most transparent and open White House in history...
...Obama said he wanted it quickly but was short on specifi cs...
...Just let him eat his waffl e. Stephen F. Hayes is a senior writer at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...The president-elect suggested that those things he said during the campaign might not be all that reliable...
...That one’s an easy one...
...Do you or Duncan have a better jump shot...
...he wondered...
...OBAMA: Look, I’m in—I think this is fun for the press, to try to stir up whatever quotes were generated during the course of the campaign...
...I want to see it enacted right away...
...And I will make just a general statement...
...She asked Obama for a range...
...The president-elect had come out in favor of some kind of stimulus package— something he hoped would pass “either before or after inauguration...
...And if I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t have offered her the job...
...I don’t want to get into numbers right now...
Vol. 14 • December 2008 • No. 15
