Wingnuts are gleefully seizing upon this remark by President Obama at his press conference on Friday morning.

The private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. Oftentimes cuts initiated by, you know, Governors or mayors who are not getting the kind of help that they have in the past from the federal government and who don't have the same kind of flexibility as the federal government in dealing with fewer revenues coming in.

While technically true, this sounds absolutely awful. The millions of people who can't get jobs in the private sector don't want to hear that it's "fine"—period.

But what bothered me about the entire briefing (watch the whole thing above and judge for yourself) is that Obama seemed out of it. There was no sense of urgency in his voice or demeanor that millions of people are hurting, are underwater on their mortgage payments—and are one paycheck away from ruin. And worst of all, in an election year, there was no discernible trace of anger that Republicans in the House are a big part of the reason.

"Instead of just talking a good game about job creators, Congress should give the small-business owners that actually create most of the new jobs in America a tax break for hiring more workers.

"These are ideas that, again, have gotten strong validation from independent, nonpartisan economists. It would make a difference in our economy. And there's no excuse for not passing these ideas. We know they can work."

See the word "Republicans" in there? I don't either.

Look, people want someone to blame, and Republicans are happy to blame the President for the stubbornly-high unemployment. Why Obama continues to let them get away with it is a mystery.

I try not to post when I'm upset about something because I prefer to write semi-reasoned analysis instead of crazed emotional heaving. But there comes a time when crazed emotional heaving is a perfectly rational thing to do. We are now in one of those times.

Why am I so freaked out, you ask? Because I think the GOP is really, really, really going to let the United States default. They've figured out that holding the debt ceiling hostage is the perfect way to achieve all of their ideological goals. This is their big shot to drown government in a bathtub and they are not going to miss it. And the only reason they can get away with this is because our supposed Democratic "leadership" does not have the guts to come right out and say that the Republicans are threatening to destroy the economy unless they get everything they want. You know that things have gotten bad when David Frum actually wishes Obama would be a more forceful in standing up to the GOP:

“Call me naive,” President Obama invited viewers of today’s press conference.

Mr. President, invitation accepted: Unless that performance today conceals some unimagined occult plan, yes, you are naive.

Congressional Republicans have refused to raise the debt limit unless the Obama Administration agrees to large and immediate spending cuts. They have their finger on the nuclear button and are threatening to detonate unless they get their way. It seems crazy that they would actually do it, but congressional Republicans have done a pretty good job of convincing the Administration (if not yet the financial markets) that they just might do it.

Obama has responded by entering into negotiations with the congressional Republicans. These negotiations have not gone well, largely because Republicans are united upon an all-spending-cuts, no-tax-increases approach to deficit reduction.

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In one of the most remarkable press conferences I've ever seen, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik called out for an end to the violent rhetoric that leads to acting-out by people who are 'unbalanced' not once, but three times.

Calling Arizona a "Mecca for prejudice and bigotry", Dupnik spoke sharply about the rhetoric coming from radio and television sources.

Mr. Dupnik called the shooting a "very sad day for Tucson" and a "horrendous, horrendous, senseless, unbelievable crime." And then he blamed the crime on the rhetoric -- presumably political rhetoric -- in the country.

"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government," he said. "The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on this country is getting to be outrageous and unfortunately Arizona has become sort of the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

Mr. Dupnik said it is time for the country to "do a little soul searching."

He added: "The vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business ... This has not become the nice United States that most of us grew up in."

Later, he said: "It's not unusual for all public officials to get threats constantly, myself included. That's the sad thing about what's going on in America: pretty soon we're not going to be able to find reasonable decent people willing to subject themselves to serve in public office."

In addition to his condemnation of rhetorical violence, he gave a few extra facts about the case. He said they were investigating a package received by Rep. Giffords' office, and that they were looking for a second suspect who he later referred to as a "person of interest". He is described as a white male in his 50s. He also confirmed 19 injured, 6 dead. 5 died on the scene, one died at the hospital. The one who died at the hospital was the nine-year old child referred to in earlier reports.

The presence of a second suspect, or involved person, suggests there is much more to this than an unbalanced person showering a crowd with bullets, but without details it's just too early to tell. Just now on MSNBC, Eugene Robinson said that the violent rhetoric now is coming exclusively from the right wing, and they should be accountable for it.

{{Facepalm}}

In a move as predictable as Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown, Democrats are using Social Security scare tactics to gain ground before the November election. President Barack Obama is not only tolerating this classic old politics maneuver by his party — he is leading the charge.

Amid a flurry of Democratic Party news releases and press conferences warning voters that Republicans are targeting Social Security for destruction, the President devoted his radio and Internet address last week to commemorating the 75th anniversary of the signing of the law that created the program. He cautioned that "some Republican leaders in Congress don't seem to have learned any lessons" from the past and are "pushing to make privatizing Social Security a key part of their legislative agenda if they win a majority in Congress." This familiar refrain might indeed help the Democrats limit their midterm losses, but Obama's involvement shows that on this issue he is putting party before bipartisanship and that he sometimes can be tone-deaf to the human element required to change Washington's acid culture.

President Obama's presser on health care reform has just begun...Let us know what you see and rate the journos...How negative do you think their questions will be? Keep a list in the comments....

David Alexander-Reuters: Why the rush?

I'll take that one Mr. President. Because we've been waiting 60 years for health care reform and many Americans are being devastated by their health care costs.

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During today's presser, President Obama was asked several times about his support for the public option. He rebuffed the health care industry's talking point that a public plan would put them out of business.

Q: Won't that drive private insurers out of business?

THE PRESIDENT: Why would it drive private insurers out of business? If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality healthcare, if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government -- which they say can't run anything -- suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical.

President Obama is still being vague about his overall support for the public option, but then gives ample information about how strong it would be. It's like he's holding out hope that a deal will be struck in Congress without pressure from him to demand the public option out right. But that's not going to work in the end. As we've seen, senators with small populations and health care monopolies are hijacking the debate and denouncing a public option. And it's coming from members of his own party. Republicans and the Health Care Industrial Complex only want to muddy up the waters with talking points while they kill off all attempts at real competition and a real health care system that helps the American people finally get quality, affordable health care instead of enabling CEOs to purchase new villas and vacation homes while the rest of America suffers.

The President: Now, if it turns out that the public plan, for example, is able to reduce administrative costs significantly, then you know what? I'd like insurance companies to take note and say, hey, if the public plan can do that, why can't we? And that's good for everybody in the system. And I don't think there should be any objection to that.

Full transcript below the fold via The LA Times.

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Liz Trotta is shocked, shocked we tell you, at how the Obama White House is managing its press conferences:

Trotta: You know, Eric, we're really witnessing something historic going on with the presidential news conference. President Obama has taken control of it like no other president I've ever seen. By eliminating, for example, the top newspapers, he's really -- which by the way, as you know, which are viewed as the intellectual muscle of the media -- he's managed to show something different. That is, he's going to tailor the questions and the answers to the way he wants them.

Now, there are competing agendas here. The press is supposed to be there to represent the people. The president is there to protect his policies and he wants to be re-elected. But here we are in the middle of a social and and economic revolution, probably the biggest we've had in the country's history, and nobody seems to be able to get a straight answer.

Instead, what we're presented with is preselected questions in a tightly controlled news conference where, at the beginning, the president reads a very self-serving statement from a large movie screen, and then he calls on people, for example, from Univision, and from Stars and Stripes, and from Ebony.

Now, this isn't to say that these people have a right to get a slice of the pie, but let's face it -- the tough questions are going to come from the big guys in media, and I'm talking about mainly newspaper people here, because the television networks certainly haven't covered themselves in glory.

Trotta was promptly corrected about claiming that the questions were preselected, and she admitted this, saying the questioners were preselected instead, and "that is brand new in the history of press conferences."

Bollocks.

The Wall Street Journal tried trotting out a similar claim this week, and Media Matters promptly destroyed it:

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President Obama sought to reassure Americans last night that his administration has made progress in reviving the economy and said his $3.6 trillion budget is "inseparable from this recovery." After sprinting through his first months in office, Obama is now facing heightened criticism from Republicans, who have called his blueprint irresponsible, and from skeptical Democrats who have already set about trimming back his top budget priorities. Obama came into office amid lofty expectations and the worst economic crisis in generations, and he succeeded in pushing through a $787 billion stimulus and launching expensive plans to revive the banking system. Last night, against a backdrop of a broad national anxiety that the economy may still be failing, he attempted to recalibrate the high hopes to more closely fit the challenges he said lie ahead. Although he spoke sharply once in response to Republican criticism, Obama struck a tone of common purpose throughout his second prime-time news conference, urging the country to be patient as he works on issues as divergent as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the malign impact of lobbying in Washington. "We haven't immediately eliminated the influence of lobbyists in Washington," he said from the East Room of the White House. "We have not immediately eliminated wasteful pork projects. And we're not immediately going to get Middle East peace. We've been in office now a little over 60 days. "What I am confident about is that we're moving in the right direction." [...] Responding with his most partisan comment of the evening, Obama said his Republican critics should look to their own history with the federal budget, accusing them of having "a short memory" when it comes to deficits. "As I recall, I'm inheriting a $1.3 trillion annual deficit from them," he said.

I just heard Obama say that some critics were trying to rewrite FDR's history. That's nice to hear. Without FDR's leadership this country might not have made it out of the depression and turned into the great country that it is now...

More to come....

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During a press conference in which he and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki marked the singing of a U.S./Iraq security agreement, a man who was later identified as an Iraqi TV journalist rushed the podium and hurled both of his shoes at President Bush while shouting, "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog."

McClatchy:

An Iraqi television journalist hurled two shoes at President Bush on Sunday during a joint news conference Bush was holding with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to mark the signing of a U.S.-Iraq security agreement.

Bush had just finished his prepared remarks in which he said the security agreement was made possible by the U.S. surge of troops earlier this year, when the journalist, Muthathar al Zaidi pulled his shoes off and hurled them at the president. "This is a goodbye kiss, you dog," Zaidi shouted.

I don't know what's more remarkable: That this guy was able to get close enough to the President to almost hit him with a shoe? Or the ease and quickness with which President Bush dodged it? Either way, you have to appreciate Bush's sense of humor as he says, "All I can report is a size 10."