Press Conference
by digby
Howard Fineman says that Obama failed to hit it out of the park in his press conference because he didn't sound enough like Ronald Reagan. He was like, totally, boring. I guess the honeymoon really is over. They're responding to him like they used to respond to Clinton. They prefer the president to speak like a six year old as Bush did or an addled elder comedian like Reagan. It's more fun.
Luckily, if actual Americans were listening they likely learned something tonight. Just as they did with Clinton, they like information and explanations that don't insult the intelligence and prefer it when the president speaks to them as if they aren't in some sort of remedial classroom.
All the gasbags can talk about is how Obama "handled" the Henry Louis Gates question, which is typical.
Update: I don't think I need to tell you that I'm with Obama on the Gates question. I personally don't care if Gates was screaming at the top of his lungs, he was in his own house, presented no threat to anyone and had broken no law. The cop arrested him for failing to be properly deferential, which the last I heard, was not illegal.
But let's face it ---- Gates was lucky they didn't taser him, wasn't he?
Update II: Krugman recalls a famous Fineman assessment of George W, Bush. Here's another one from a Hardball appearance after a Bush press conference in March of 2003:
"If he’s a cowboy he’s the reluctant warrior, he’s Shane… because he has to, to protect his family."
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