Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on May 1, 2013

President Obama answers questions during his news conference at the White House on Tuesday.

The president also issued a statement on the investiture of the new king of the Netherlands.

While small and routine, these moves were all easy to understand, as were the accompanying proclamations from the White House press shop.

What was not clear was the executive thinking behind the 45-minute news conference the president had held in the morning.

Announced shortly after 8:30 a.m. and slated for 10:15, this was to be the first such media availability in two months and just the third this year. A mood of expectation arose in the briefing room, especially as the start time slipped to 10:30 and then 10:45.

It felt as though something newsworthy must be happening. But as it turned out, not so much.

The president had no announcement to make not even an opening statement. Instead, he plunged right into the queries, nearly all of them posed in a challenging tone. What about Syria, the Boston Marathon bombing, Mexico, the Republicans in Congress and the challenge of administering Obamacare?

The president wound his way through the session, wrapped it up and then returned to respond to a shouted question about Jason Collins, the NBA player who announced Monday that he is gay.

As usual, the president was mostly calm and explicative. But what stood out were the moments when he seemed at a loss to deal with the ongoing frustrations of dealing with Congress.

Again and again, the president seemed to be saying: "OK, that didn't work out so well, but I tried to do what needed to be done and the Republicans wouldn't let me."

See the rest here:
Logic Behind Obama News Conference Hard To Fathom

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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