Transcript: President Obama Remarks on Souter Retirement, from White House Briefing
(Source: White House Press Office)
THE PRESIDENT: Hey. I’m sorry, but Gibbs is screwing this thing up. You know, there’s a job to do — please, everybody, have a seat. There’s a job to do, you got to do it yourself. (Laughter.)
MR. GIBBS: See you guys later. Have a good weekend. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: This is kind of cool.
MR. GIBBS: It’s way cooler than it seems. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Absolutely.
The reason I’m interrupting Robert is not because he’s not doing a good job — he’s doing an unbelievable job. But it’s because I just got off the telephone with Justice Souter. And so I would like to say a few words about his decision to retire from the Supreme Court.
Transcript: White House Briefing on Swine Flu
(Source: White House Press Office)
White House Press Briefing – Swine Flu – April 26, 2009
Janet Naplolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security
John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security
Dr. Richard Besser, Acting Director, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention
Robert Gibbs, Press Secretary
12:34 P.M. EDT
MR. GIBBS: Good afternoon, guys. Thank you for taking some time out of your Sunday afternoon. We wanted to bring together many of the people that have the primary governmental responsibility in dealing with the situation and to discuss the government’s capacity and capability to discuss the steps the government is taking to address this.
Video: Meet the Press, Robert Gibbs, King Abudllah II | April 26
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White House Intel Director’s Dissenting Views Scrubbed from Released Memo
Admiral Dennis C. Blair, White House Intelligence Director, told colleagues in a memo last week that some Bush era torture techniques did produce information helpful in the nation’s fight against terrorism, according to a story tonight on the New York Times website.
This is interesting for two reasons. The first is obvious – Blair’s analysis could be construed as detracting from the Obama Administration’s stance on torture and the contents of the Bush Administration memos it has released. Today, Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs summed up the current versus former administration’s positions in his daily briefing when asked about former Vice President Dick Cheney’s latest shots across the bow:
Q Okay, last point is Vice President Cheney saying he’s disturbed by all of this.
MR. GIBBS: Well, you know, I — we’ve had a at least two-year policy disagreement with the Vice President of the United States of America. That policy disagreement is whether or not you can uphold the values in which this country was founded at the same time that you protect the citizens that live in that country. The President of the United States and this administration believes that you can. The Vice President has come to, in our opinion, a different conclusion.
The second reason for interest tonight is disturbing for those of us who voted for and count ourselves as Obama supporters. It appears that one of two things happened with regard to making Blair’s memo public. Either, a) a reporter found out about and requested a copy of the document; or, b) the Administration decided to proactively release it. Whether A or B, here’s the rub. The White House Press Office changed it. What was released, was not what was written. It’s even more troubling if it was changed after a request for a public document was made by the media. Since Blair is involved in national security and intelligence wouldn’t it have been easier to call the memo classified? Instead, it appears a lie was perpetrated.
From the Times story:
Admiral Blair’s assessment that the interrogation methods did produce important information was deleted from a condensed version of his memo released to the media last Thursday. Also deleted was a line in which he empathized with his predecessors who originally approved some of the harsh tactics after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
“I like to think I would not have approved those methods in the past,” he wrote, “but I do not fault those who made the decisions at that time, and I will absolutely defend those who carried out the interrogations within the orders they were given.”
A spokeswoman for Admiral Blair said the lines were cut in the normal editing process of shortening an internal memo into a media statement.
What all reasonable people want from their government is the unvarnished truth. I can understand a public official – even more the president – not wanting to air staff work. What counts the most is the final policy. But, if that staff work is to be released, it should be accurate and not sanitized.
It’s obvious that this Administration is as message driven and communications savvy as any. What I hope does not happen is that this Administration begins obscuring the truth and lying to Americans to preserve the message.
Mr. President, We’re Not All In The Same Boat
I just read the biggest bunch of horse pucky to come out of the Obama marketing machine since all of the false “outrage” over the AIG bonuses.
According to a story on the Reuters business wire tonight, President Barack Obama will meet with bankers on Friday and tell them, “We’re all in the same boat.” His press secretary, Robert Gibbs, explains further:
“The president looks forward to getting an update on what they’re seeing happening in the economy,” Gibbs said on Wednesday of the banking chief executives who are slated to meet with the president later this week.
He said Obama’s message at the meeting would be to say that what is good for Wall Street is good for Main Street.
“We’re all in the same boat,” Gibbs said. “We have to understand that … what is good for one has to be also good for the other.”
This is becoming the schizophrenic presidency. One day we get Obama, hero for the middle class. This Obama campaigns on a middle class tax cut – a true middle class tax cut, not Republican trickle down – and puts it in his budget. The next day, after attacks from Capitol Hill, the middle class tax cut is suddenly a “maybe.” One day we get President Outrage – angry beyond belief at those bloodsuckers on Wall Street for taking advantage of the taxpayer. The next day we get a trillion dollar pledge from the President’s treasury secretary to use more taxpayer money to further front toxic assets.
Today, this is just President Bad PR. Do taxpayers want to hear the President coddling bankers? “We’re all in the same boat?” Give me a break. We’re all in a barrel headed over the Niagra Falls – a barrel the bankers and brokers put us into. So far, in this recession, this financial crisis, the bankers and brokers have been sailing aboard the Queen Mary. I mean, come on — they made all the mistakes and we’re stuck footing the bill.
I know I’m not in the same boat with the suits Obama will speak to on Friday. When they fuck up, Hank Paulson, Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke are like the OJ Simpson Dream Team, pulling Wall Street’s chestnuts out of the fire. When you or I fuck up – we’re just fucked.
