Politics

I watched the last third or so of the President's press conference this evening.

I was startled by it, because it seemed to me that the questioners were, for the most part, being very aggressive in their questions. Not a lot of cordiality in the room. Some of it was humourous, like the man who tried to both re-ask the question someone else had asked and ask his own question, but for the most part, it was a serious undertaking. I got the clear impression that a lot of the reporters were not happy with the answers that they were getting. While some of it, perhaps most of it, has to be because reporters aren't happy unless they're making the President squirm as he tries not to say or expose what they want him to say or expose, part of it was clearly because in multiple cases the President didn't really answer their question. Sometimes, that was because the answer would have gone into a different direction than he wanted, as when one woman asked him, in essence, why he wasn't doing something extra for black people, inasmuch as their unemployment rate is so high. The President said that minority unemployment rates are always higher than the national average, and then he darted back to the general question of the economy, partly because that was what he wanted to talk about, but partly because he can't be seen saying Well, black people, you know, they always have problems with employment. It may be true; in some places, it definitely is true. But if the President says that, it becomes a whole different conversation; one that takes air away from the other discussions going on. In another case, a reporter wanted him to say that the government's health care plan was inherently unfair to insurance companies, because the government doesn't have to make a profit, and what the President said was more a pitch for the idea of the plan than an acknowledgement that he was right -- because, again, that would lead to a discussion that would take away from the discussion that he wanted to have. Overall, it was more an opportunity to pitch and reiterate than teach and expound. I suppose the alternative would have gone on for hours, but, in a way, I wish it had.

Though I did like his comment about insurance companies cherrypicking clients, I bet they didn't.

My daughter walked in towards the end, and we talked a very little bit about it -- about his style in answering questions, and in general leadership. Never miss a teaching opportunity.