Repeat after me. Toxic=Stimulus. Toxic=Stimulus. Toxic=Stimulus. More on that word and President Obama's news conference in a moment but can I just say that these presidential news conferences are starting to remind me of bad, boring movies like “Ishtar”. Wake me when it’s over. Just for kicks can someone PLEASE let Sam Donaldson ask a question?
The only passionate moment in the entire news conference was when he was arguing in favor of building the ground zero mosque. Clearly the President is genuine in his feelings on this issue and is not playing politics because arguing in favor of the mosque is not the wisest move politically considering that 70% of Americans don’t want it built at that site.
There were a few things that stuck out to me during the press conference. First of all, as much as he does not want to extend the tax cuts to the “wealthy”, he definitely left the door open for negotiation. He is not in veto mode yet. Secondly, his opening statement blasting Republicans for not supporting the small business jobs bill was pretty partisan right off the bat. Normally, President Obama will hold fire and not go so partisan right off the top. So much for bi-partisanship. Also, I found it interesting that President Obama cited his administration’s policies that got Benjamin Netanyahu to sign up for U.S. brokered peace talks. Huh? Where have I been the last 18 months? I need to stop reading the Jerusalem Post. Finally, what was most interesting to me is that President Obama just refuses to say that this new $50 billion proposal for infrastructure is a “stimulus”. He just won’t use the word. It’s toxic and the majority of voters didn’t really like the first one so he won’t say the word. Instead he said that he is “trying to stimulate growth”. He looks like the typical politician when he does that. Voters aren’t stupid.
A couple observations: We now know that President Bush and President Obama do have one thing in common. Both came to DC with the expectation that they would be able to bridge the partisan gap inside the Beltway. They both failed. Also, just curious: when will President Obama and the Democratic Party stop blaming the GOP for the current economic mess? It helped them in 2008 but 2010 is a big time stretch. I liken this to a baseball team trotting out their over the hill relief pitcher closer one more time because he has closed games so well in the past. But in this scenario for the Democrats, it is like sending out a 54 year old Mariana Rivera to the mound. (Google it)
Finally, let me just say this. When the economy is not doing well it is hard to make the argument that voters need to keep your party in power. So in essence what President Obama has to do is convince people that if his White House and party didn’t do the bailouts and spend gobs of money then America would be in a depression right now. Trying to sell the “what if” scenario is not easy.