Cory Collier

President Barack Obama is really pissing me off.

President Barack Obama’s first prime time Presidential news conference was tonight, and it went off with many a hitch. First, President Obama insisted upon the same fear-mongering that has dominated his first month in office. Second, sounding like a dictator from a third-world country he claims the conservatives who voice dissent represent ‘old habits’ that are ‘hard to break’. Then, when President Obama had clear chances to show a level of common ground with conservatives (or, just the American people) he failed.

The first, and most obvious part of President Obama’s speech was in reference to the ’stimulus’ bill being debated in congress now. The debate is a facade. House and Senate Democrats will have enough votes to force the bill through congress. What’s really going on, is a war for the hearts and minds of the American people.

We the people, are rightfully skeptical about the justification for putting the next few generations of Americans under serious national debt and hyper-inflation for the sake of propping up socialist columns in government. President Obama mentioned being upset that “the same folks who presided over 8 years of doubling the national deficit” would question a bill that would likely quadrupale that amount. His repeated claims that there is no serious doubt about the validity about passing this stimulus bill is equally offensive. There are plenty of very smart economists who do not believe that this bill will help jumpstart the economy.

First of all, two wrongs dont make a right. Secondly, the doubling of national deficit was largely done to support a war on Islamic fundamentalists who, on top of murdering thousands of Americans, spurned a mild recession into a serious one in 2001. Certainly some of the money could have been spent better than it was. That does not mean however, that the people most responsible for that spending are now beholden to give your administration and it’s congressional allies a blank check for the ‘PORK SPENDING’ that you now feel entitled to.

The sense of panic being pushed on the American people is akin to a sales pitch to push an impulse buy in any store you can think of. By asking the people to not question the largest spending bill in history of the world, you are asking them to blindly follow what they cannot understand. If the people of this country are willing to follow without question now, to President Obama, then they certainly are capable of doing the same for someone whose intentions might be far more sinister. The people of this country are rightfully being skeptical, and asking tough questions. They deserve the best answers that their money can buy.There were other topics that managed to bring my blood to a boiling point over the conference as well.

A reporter for the Huffington Post asked … Wait a minute… THE HUFFINGTON POST? Since when is a socialist blog aggregation considered a reputable news outlet worthy of having access to the White House? The number of attrocities the Huffington Post is responsible for in it’s amazingly biased output of information is not countable. The fact that someone from that waste dispenser got a press pass is enough to make me lose nearly all respect for the administration. The fact that someone from that site was even allowed to ask a question? OMG, I need to calm down …

More horrible reporting, without an appropriate response: someone, from some news outlet, asked President Obama for his thoughts on the recent discovery that Alex Rodriguez has admitted to using steriods in 2003. I absolutely do not pay taxes to listen to my elected (or non-elected) government representatives talk about sports. Sports has no bearing on the well being of this country. Government’s only business is government, not entertainment. Next we’ll be asking for congressional hearings to find out if Paula Abdul is really on drugs.

The only real reporting for the night, was done by Fox News. Yes, you heard me right. Major Garret, of Fox News, asked President Obama about remarks that Vice President Joe Biden made. Vice President Biden made comments that “there’s a 30% chance that this might all fail”. Garret asked President Obama if he could elaborate on what Vice President Biden was referring to. President Obama broke into laughter upon hearing the question. His response “I have no idea what Joe was referring to”.

If the Vice President is going to make remarks like “there’s a 30% chance that this might all fail”, then I expect the President to know what the hell he’s talking about. Laughing it off like the crazies at Fox News are grasping at straws is offensive. Vice President Biden was President Obama’s pick. If he can’t handle the loose cannon now, then he should have never picked him in the first place.

Alas, even with so much to disagree on, there was one glimmer of hope in President Obama’s remarks tonight. When asked about the war in Afghanistan, and a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from the region, President Obama responded with some comforting remarks. “We cannot allow those safe havens (for Al Queda) to exit”. Thank you very much Mr. President. I hope, despite the incredible pressure you must be under from the people who helped get you elected, that you don’t forget that. Our economy can falter, and we will recover. If our defense falters, we might not.