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The presidential press conference debut, Night 1 at Westminster
President Barack Obama’s first press conference wasn’t as fun or combative as political junkies prefer, but maybe that’s more a reflection of the serious economic times in which we find ourselves than the prez-press chemistry.
I think Obama smiled exactly once and tended to reply in long-winded fashion in order to make all the points he aimed to make about the economic stimulus package. After 45 minutes, it became a bit of a snoozer.
Helen Thomas, the dean of the White House press corps until George W. Bush banished her to the back of the room for her hard questions on the Iraq war, was in the front row last night and asked one question.
Obama maintained tight control throughout, which wasn’t the most entertaining way to exchange questions and answers with the press. White House reporters are said to be miffed that the president insists on having a list of reporters to call on, thus rendering the rest of the pack little more than an audience.
The shut-out status of the non-questioning reporters may have accounted for why one woman in the front row jiggled her foot and played with her hair throughout. A couple of guys in the middle of the room appeared to nod off a couple of times, and others whispered to neighbors.
Let’s hope these shows get better. If they don’t, it’s doubtful all the broadcast and cable networks will carry them.
Westminster Night No. 1
Boy, that was an unattractive bunch of group winners last night, wasn’t it? Of course my favorite group is up tonight — the sporting dogs.
But except for the Scottish deerhound in the hound group last night, the other winners were overly-groomed weirdos. My apologies to owners of standard poodles who insist on carving puff-balls into their poor pooch’s behinds and pulis, those rasta-haired dogs that just look unkempt and sad.
TV host David Frei, as always, was splendid in explaining each breed and even allowing himself to poke fun at a few of the sillier ones — he let slip that the French bulldog had “a face like a water buffalo.”
A new addition to the coverage was Mary Carillo, a former pro tennis who is one of the sport’s best TV analysts. She didn’t even try to hide her glee at Madison Square Garden, enjoying every single parade of pups in every single category. Her excitement was contagious — even during the always-odd non-sporting group, with many of the aforementioned weirdos.
Best-in-show is tonight, with the canine action starting at 7 on USA and staying there until 10 p.m. No more switching channels midstream.
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By lovethedogs
February 10, 2009 5:32 PM | Link to this
The wierd dogs are the joy of the Westminster Dog Show. I was in NM 2 weeks ago - and saw 2 humongous and strange black furballs - and totally impressed the owners by saying, "Newfoundlands?" All thanks to the WDS. Loved the Rasta dogs, and am currently cheering for the luxurious and fiesty scottish terrier. We'll see what tonight brings... Someday an Australian Cattle Dog will win, and I will be as proud as a poof-*** poodle. (And, welcome to 4 years of policy wonk, word-salad snoozers from Obama. Someone needs to stay awake and pay attention to what they are about to do to us!)
By Larry Springer
February 10, 2009 11:14 AM | Link to this
It is one thing to ignore 95 percent of the reporters (that just ticks off the White House press corps). It is quite another thing to use each question as a launching point for a stream of messages that may or may not be on point to the actual question.
The President, who demonstrated during the campaign that he can be a powerful communicator, needs to remember that in the world of televised news conferences, less is more. (He seems to have been counseled to punch out as many of his messages as possible, regardless of the context of the reporters' questions.)
No doubt these are important points that the White House hopes to see repeated in the press conference coverage. But the President needs to serve up this information in digestible dollops rather than in a machine gun spray of bullet points, which tend to confuse and frustrate viewers.
Regretably, after 45 minutes, the responses tended to come across as a bit of a boring monologue versus a lively dialogue between the leader of the Free World and the representatives of the Free Press.