Clearing Ideological Blockage

In the past Presidential press conferences were a call and responses of ill-formed questions followed by a rambling and amusing response from the previous president. The events were actually entertaining if not painful at times.

It's clear after watching Obama give his first prime-time presser that message and style make all of the difference. This president has a more professorial approach to answering questions. His style entails fielding one question and turning it into a smaller version of a policy speech. The key is to not sound preachy or condescending to the audience He was able to make about a dozen questions last nearly an hour. It also prevents the answer from being chopped to pieces by incessant follow ups.

Gone are the embarrassing moments and fumbling on the words. The juvenile nature of some of the questioning is sadly still around in some cases.

Several questions were centered on the new era of bipartisanship that Obama has tried to usher in. Maura Eliason from NPR had the most well formed question on that issue. The answer gave the president the best opportunity to explain what his approach has been and will be for getting buy-in from his GOP adversaries.

With medical precision Obama suggested that perhaps over time the ideological blockage would be removed. Like a clogged artery or a maybe a boil.

Then there were the silly questions. Chuck Todd was concerned that consumption was the cause of the current economic crisis. Silly Chuck you are no Tim Russert. Chip Reid weighed in on bipartisanship then Major Garrett from Fox attempted to create controversy related to something Joe the Biden said. That's the same guy who reported two weeks ago that the "Making Work Pay" tax cut was dead on arrival. The problem with that story is that its' well, false.

Two things occurred that highlighted the way times are a chaning at the White House. One was Sam Stein from HuffPo was called on for a question. Consider it recognition that old media models are quickly fading away. The second was the presence of progressive talker Big Eddy Schultz seated in the front row next to Helen Thomas. Not something I'd expect to see but welcome none the less.