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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

When Crybaby Interviewed the President

A lot of outrage, and not-so-gentle mockery, this morning over a classic Politico piece by editor Jim VandeHei and chief reporter Mike Allen complaining about President Obama manipulating the press, or just ignoring them, or shutting them out, or something.  In any case, Obama is the "Puppet Master."   They seem to feel this is unprecedented and a  turning point for the Republic!

So John Cook, editor of Gawker, just performed a public service by posting on Twitter every question Allen chose to ask President Bush when he did get full access back in 2008.   You may remember 2008--the economy was about to collapse and we were still in a full shooting war in Iraq.  Go to his feed  @JohnJCook for all of the Qs (a few are even serious), but these below catch the spirit.  Keep in mind that Allen wrote today that  Obama avoids Politico reporters in part because they "ask tough, unpredictable questions." And don't miss Charles P. Pierce's full, fun,  autopsy here.
All right. Mr. President, who does the better impression, Will Ferrell of you, or Dana Carvey of your father?

Mr. President, I know you're going to hate this, but I'm hoping that we may twist your arm and talk about baseball for just a moment.

Now, Mr. President, I wonder if you think that Major League Baseball is doing enough to combat steroids use?

Mr. President, you haven't been golfing in recent years. Is that related to Iraq?

Now, Mr. President, you and the First Lady appeared on American Idol's charity show, "Idol Gives Back."   And I wonder who do you think is going to win? Syesha, David Cook, or David Archuleta?

When you took her arm [at daughter's wedding], Mr. President, what were you thinking? What was your toast?

What are you looking forward to when you finally get your computer back?

In the spirit of the Internet, I wonder if we could ask a question from one of our users?

Mr. President. You talked about some tough decisions -- what was the happiest moment you've had in this amazing room?
Greg Mitchell is author of more than a dozen books, including four on influential American political campaigns,  such as Obama-Romney 2012. 



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This one is on a serious subject, but Allen obviously wants to give Bush an opportunity to avoid any responsibility on the Iraq mess:

"Mr. President, I'm going to surprise you -- there's a question from a user, and he asks: Do you feel that you were misled on Iraq?"

Good grief...

Fearguth said...

Hi, Greg! Please follow the link to my response to 'The Puppet Master':

http://bildungblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/blog-post_5555.html

Anonymous said...

O.M.G. THESE are the tough questions?

I call them SOFTBALL!!!

Anonymous said...

I think its ha-larious that Politico thinks President Obama avoids their reporters because why? They ask difficult and unredictable questions. Maybe he means stupid questions.

Anyway, I can see President Obama sitting for an interview with Mr. Simon but the rest of them NO WAY!
Save for him Politico is clearly biased toward Republicans so why should the President even bother like I said unless he is guaranteed to speak with Simon.

tony said...

david cook. omg.