You gotta love it!
I can’t remember where I saw the comment, but I remember someone telling us how great it was to have a president in command of himself and his answers to questions.
Obama Town Hall Questioners Were Campaign Backers
By Garance Franke-RutaPresident Obama has promised to change the way the government does business, but in at least one respect he is taking a page from the Bush playbook, stocking his town hall Thursday with supporters whose soft — though far from planted — questions provided openings to discuss his preferred message of the day.
Obama has said, “I think it’s important to engage your critics … because not only will you occasionally change their mind but, more importantly, sometimes they will change your mind,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs recounted to The Post’s Lois Romano in an interview Wednesday.
But while the online question portion of the White House town hall was open to any member of the public with an Internet connection, the five fully identified questioners called on randomly by the president in the East Room were anything but a diverse lot. They included: a member of the pro-Obama Service Employees International Union, a member of the Democratic National Committee who campaigned for Obama among Hispanics during the primary; a former Democratic candidate for Virginia state delegate who endorsed Obama last fall in an op-ed in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star; and a Virginia businessman who was a donor to Obama’s campaign in 2008.
Much more at the link; hat tip to Jeff Goldstein, who got it from Glenn Reynolds.
Irony is so ironic.
Art Downs:
I am on the Obama list and the whole thing was a set-up.
29 March 2009, 9:53 amYorkshire:
A pre-picked softball questions and questioners at the Press Conference, now this. One Big Ass Mistake America.
29 March 2009, 12:24 pmmike g:
Art Downs> Was Jeff Gannon not available?
29 March 2009, 6:45 pmmike g:
And who can forget that fake turkey George was carrying around for the cameras?
29 March 2009, 7:14 pmmike g:
http://www.cynicalnation.com/img/bush_turkey3.jpg
29 March 2009, 7:15 pmDana Pico:
Well, he was going to send Dick Cheney back out turkey hunting, to bring him a real one, but couldn’t find anyone to go with him.
29 March 2009, 7:31 pmmike g:
**ZIIING!!!!**
That was a good one.
29 March 2009, 7:31 pmJohn Hitchcock:
Mike g: in case you haven’t heard, that turkey turned out to be real, edible, and eated by the men and women in uniform.
29 March 2009, 7:31 pmmike g:
I dunno…the only people clinging to “the turkey was real” are the online devoted. And I’ve eaten MRE turkey and I don’t know if I could tell the difference if it was real or fake.
29 March 2009, 7:39 pmDana Pico:
Don’t know about of the rest of the MREs, but Autumn was always happy when they got MREs, because they had desserts in them!
29 March 2009, 7:45 pmmike g:
I never got sick of MRE raspberry pop tarts and that was over sixteen years ago and I’m still buying them today. Old habits die hard.
29 March 2009, 7:51 pmJohn Hitchcock:
Sign me up for a “slap chop” if your PR man isn’t in jail.
29 March 2009, 8:43 pmmike g:
johnqcitizen> You know what the mainstream media’s bias is toward? Crap. And crap commercials advertising crap in between more crap. Move out of your parents basement and get a life.
29 March 2009, 10:00 pmArt Downs:
MikeG really is missing his calling.
He seems to think that he knows all sorts of things about all sorts of people, from where they live (’parent’s basement’ to certain anatomical dimensions.
I do not remember ever meeting his wife/girlfriend/mother but whatever they are telling him about me, it is a lie. I have made a point of avoiding pick-up bars. Perhaps there are some where I can drive a car inside……
Then again, I am married.
30 March 2009, 7:12 ammike g:
Art> I didn’t mean it in that way. I just meant Jeff Gannon in the sense that he was a planted audience member.
btw…did you see this?
http://iowaliberal.com/?p=2888
30 March 2009, 11:05 am